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Honing the city’s e-commerce aspirations
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HANGZHOU, the home of global e-commerce giant Alibaba, is seeking to expand its reputation as a hub for online innovation, with a special focus in cross-border trading.
The city has invited project applications in sectors such as information sharing, financial services, smart logistics, e-commerce credit, data compilation and risk assessment. The deadline for registering is the end of November. Winners will be eligible for hefty subsidies and the opportunity to base their operations in Hangzhou industrial parks.
The Hangzhou Cross-Border e-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Area, which is sponsoring the project search, was created by the State Council, China’s cabinet, in March 2015. It was the first site of its kind dedicated to exploring solutions to problems in cross-border e-commerce trade.
“The volume of exports and imports related to cross-border e-commerce has skyrocketed to US$1.8 billion last year, surging 22 percent from a year earlier,” said Shi Huangkai, vice director of pilot area committee. “This enormous success has largely been attributed to the Hangzhou policies that encourage innovation.”
Companies from Hangzhou and other cities were quick to sign up for the project. Their projects span a wide array of services.
Glolinker Co, the first to register, is working on a “global warehouse” platform to sell China-made products like LED lamps and home appliances overseas.
Other companies on the new register are working in areas such as quality control and intellectual property.
The Zhejiang Foreign Services Corp registered a project aimed at nurturing professional talent to work in cross-border businesses.
“We want to work with local universities on this project,” said Qi Yan, company vice manager. “The human resources of campuses should be linked with job and trainee opportunities in companies.”
Her company is currently negotiating with the Zhejiang Technical Institute of Economics and the Zhijiang campus of the Zhejiang University of Technology.
“Hangzhou still lacks talent in specialized areas,” Qi told Shanghai Daily. “The universities cannot keep up with the market demand for talent. Sometimes their educational curricula fall short of practical industrial application of ideas.”
Intellectual property protection is also a challenge in cross-border trading.
Gao Jingjun, a former online retailer, is establishing what is believed to be the first legal firm dedicated to issues relating to cross-border e-commerce law. It will provide clients with overseas legal services.
“Intellectual property is a weakness for Chinese companies,” Gao told Shanghai Daily. “Many of them are unaware of trademark and copyright issues when trading with other countries. Lawsuits related to cross-border intellectual property will become more prevalent common in the future. My platform will help clients navigate these issues.”
Gao said there are many firms providing legal advice on intellectual property issues, but few specializing in cross-border e-commerce.
“We have already recovered losses of 1 million yuan (US$145,253) for our clients,” Gao added.
Another company on the new register is Pingpong Cross-Border Finance Co, which is involved in several projects aimed at increasing the financial efficiency of trading firms.
“Companies cannot retrieve money from foreign e-commerce platforms as quickly as they do in the domestic market,” company spokesman Chu Yongcheng said. “We want to accelerate the turnover rate so that these companies have additional funds to invest in new products.”
E-commerce and traditional industries share some similarities. For example, products may require quality inspection before distribution. However, hiring professional quality-control staff can be difficult for companies headquartered in smaller cities.
Into that gap comes Trade Aider Co.
“There are more than 40,000 professional quality-control inspectors registered on our platform,” Trader Aider spokesman Zhang Fan said. “Clients just need to click a mouse and our system will dispatch an inspector to their factories.”
Registered inspectors are spread across China. Since most of them are working part-time on the platform, their charges tend to be cheaper than the market average.
“The Hangzhou pilot area, after two years in operation, is finding that big data, good services and innovation are the keys to building an international e-commerce city,” said Wang Chong, director of the pilot area commission.
“We are trying to attract more innovative projects and more professional talent to Hangzhou,” he added. “We can provide them with financial support and beneficial policies.”
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