Cross-border e-commerce companies in E. China's Jiangsu continue exploring Belt & Road markets

A visitor (R) communicates with a staff member (C) at the booth Alibaba at the 2023 China Cross-border E-commerce Trade Fair in Fuzhou, southeast China's Fujian Province, March 18, 2023. (Xinhua/Lin Shanchuan)

Enterprises engaged in cross-border e-commerce in Jiangsu, a province with large foreign trade volume in east China, are increasingly eager to tap the potentials of Belt & Road markets.

In recent years, a slew of measures have been taken in Jiangsu to help enterprises to expand Belt & Road markets. With more companies joining in, more supporting policies are expected to optimize cross-border e-commerce and facilitate the expansion in Belt & Road markets.

-- All eyes on Belt & Road markets

Sponsored by the Made-in-China.com (MIC), the Amazing April, an event to help Chinese foreign trade enterprises find quality buyers, officially kicked off in Jiangsu on April 3. According to the real-time data provided by MIC, the number of orders acquired by suppliers at the event spiked 165 percent on the first day.

"As an end-to-end foreign trade service platform, we are dedicated to helping Chinese manufacturing enterprises explore opportunities globally, especially in the Belt & Road markets," said Li Lei, president of MIC and senior vice president of Focus Technology, parent company of MIC.

Yang Yongqing, president of SUMEC Group Corporation, a manufacturing service group in China, believed the ASEAN markets would remain stable in 2023.

Cao Lin, CMO of Wuxi Easy Cross-border Incubator Ltd. Co., was very optimistic about the potentials of cross-border e-commerce in Belt & Road countries.

The Belt & Road cross-border e-commerce industrial parks in cities of Wuxi and Yancheng run by Cao's company, saw the total cross-border e-commerce trade volume balloon to 220 million U.S. dollars in 2022, up about 50 percent year on year.

"We see greater potentials in Belt & Road markets, especially ASEAN countries," according to Zhou Pei, who has been with Nanjing Kuayi E-Commerce Ltd. Co., an active player in the cross-border e-commerce sector, since 2015.

In 2022, Nanjing Kuayi sold over 6 million U.S. dollars of products to Belt & Road markets, among which, Malaysia, Russia and Thailand ranked the top three, making up 56 percent, 21 percent and 16 percent respectively of its Belt & Road trade volume.

More enterprises are attracted to ride the wave of cross-border e-commerce in Jiangsu. "We will seize the opportunities, and upgrade and transform our business to open up overseas markets," said Han Kai, founder of Suqiang Jiangbei Foods Ltd. Co., a well-known e-commerce company in the city of Suqiang.

-- Comprehensive services ready to support

Last year, MIC attended a dozen of expos held in Belt & Road countries, including well-known ones such as METALEX, Arab Health, and Architecture & Building Service, providing a platform for Chinese manufacturing enterprises to embrace Belt & Road markets.

Apart from that, MIC hosted several online promotion events targeted at Russian and Arabic markets, helping match the buyer and seller accurately.

As a large export and import province in China, Jiangsu has given all out to foster and optimize cross-border e-commerce.

In recent years, the east China's province has deepened its cooperation with e-commerce giants like Amazon and Alibaba, encouraged traditional foreign trade companies to go online, and organized "Jiangsu Quality Products Going Global" online trade promotion events.

According to Chen Tao, head of Department of Commerce of Jiangsu Province, cross-border e-commerce, along with digital trade and new offshore trade, would obtain continuous support from the province.