The Shandong provincial government issued an action plan on May 24, as a guideline to build the proposed China (Zibo) Comprehensive Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone.
An exterior view of the newly opened Zibo Comprehensive Bonded Zone, part of the city's initiative to expand its cross-border e-commerce sector. [Photo/WeChat ID: zibofabu2014]
Under the plan, Zibo city – located in East China's Shandong province – will focus on developing an online service platform and an offline platform for its cross-border e-commerce industry.
In terms of the offline platform, Zibo will set up a cross-border e-commerce industrial park and a cross-border e-commerce cluster. It will build an overseas warehouse, as well as support enterprises in their construction of overseas operational centers in key countries and regions.
The plan calls for the development of a cross-border e-commerce core area to focus on three sectors – electronic information, intelligent manufacturing and medical equipment. Zibo will also build a cross-border e-commerce import and export commodities exhibition and trading center.
In addition, each district and county in Zibo will build one to two cross-border e-commerce clusters with complete industry supply chains that will generate agglomeration effects.
Zibo's cross-border e-commerce expansion is already in progress. The China (Zibo) Comprehensive Cross-Border E-Commerce Pilot Zone started operating on May 17, as well as 20 overseas warehouses.
The Luzhong International Land Port & Zibo Inland Port Management and Operation Company was unveiled on the same day.
The platform, built by Shandong Port Group (SPG) – one of the world's biggest port operators – and the Zibo government, is expected to play a key role in Zibo's opening-up, as well as to be a platform for SPG to take root in Zibo and develop the market in Shandong's central areas.
"The construction of the comprehensive cross-border e-commerce pilot zone in Zibo will not only enable enterprises to benefit from policies, but also facilitate improved customs, especially for the majority of export-oriented small, medium and micro enterprises that lack professional personnel and professional knowledge," said Li Bin, general manager of the marketing center of Bluesail Medical Co Ltd, a medical device exporter based in Zibo.
The company launched its e-commerce platform – the SKA project – on Oct 8 last year and officially started exporting through it in November 2021. It applied the 9710 customs supervision model, under which domestic enterprises directly export goods to overseas enterprises through cross-border logistics.
From November to December in 2021, the company processed 243 export manifests, with a cargo value of $17.3 million.
A display stand of Bluesail Medical Co Ltd at an exhibition. [Photo/WeChat ID: zibofabu2014]
In 2021, Zibo cultivated a total of 70 cross-border e-commerce export enterprises such as Shandong INOV New Materials Co Ltd and Bluesail Medical Co Ltd.
The cross-border e-commerce exports under the 9710 and 9810 customs supervision models reached 2.93 billion yuan ($437.05 million) that year, a massive year-on-year growth of 7,918.9 percent.
Zibo is pushing hard to achieve an annual turnover of 26 billion yuan in its cross-border e-commerce, with an annual growth rate of more than 100 percent. It also plans to cultivate more than 400 cross-border e-commerce enterprises, as well as build more than eight cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and more than 20 public overseas warehouses by 2024.
Zibo Customs officials go about checking goods. [Photo/WeChat ID: zibofabu2014]
