Hosted in China’s National Convention Centre (CNCC), the conference was international in spirit – featuring organisations and enterprises from 125 regions worldwide. It was a collaboration between the World Customs Organisation (WCO) and the General Administration of China Customs (GACC).

It narrowed its focus to the structure of international trade, and discussions centred on enforcing the regulation of safe and effective e-commerce, culminating in what became the conference’s Beijing Declaration.

Seizing Opportunities

Arranged into eleven sessions the conference covered topics ranging from ’The Belt and Road: Opportunities for E-Commerce’ to ’Role of e-vendors/platforms and intermediaries’, tackling the trials of global e-commerce head-on.

China’s cross-border e-commerce market has increased by 50%+ year-on-year in the past 3 years

With Beijing hosting the first of these conferences, China’s importance on the global stage of e-commerce grows ever stronger. Yu Guangzhou, the Minister of the GACC, reports that China’s cross-border e-commerce market has increased by more than 50% each year in the past three years.

According to the Deputy Chief of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Yi Xiaozhun, “China has already occupied more than 40% of the global e-commerce transactions [and is] already leading in many areas of e-commerce, especially in payment.”

The opportunities are there; it is access to those opportunities that’s proving trickier. The conference’s goal is to strengthen the framework for a more streamlined and regulated international e-commerce market. This is so that businesses of any size can succeed in the cross-border market.

Sustainable International Collaboration

Cross-Border e-commerce, makes the world smaller and makes the market bigger.Ding Lei, NetEase CEO

“Cross-Border e-commerce,” says Ding Lei, founder and CEO of NetEase, “makes the world smaller and makes the market bigger.”

The conference’s theme was the promotion of an ’innovative, inclusive, strategic and collaborative approach to sustainable cross-border e-commerce,’ and the Beijing Declaration forms part of that all-important framework.

Building on the Luxor Agreement, it is a joint effort to preserve legitimate cross-border trade whilst supporting businesses, assets and clients in their global outreach.

“Cross-border e-commerce is a bridge connecting global production and consumption, and an important source of strength that can resist protectionism and promote trade liberalisation and facilitation,” Yu Guangzhou continued in his address.

While the conference featured guests and speakers of huge and established companies, such as Jack Ma of Alibaba and Li Yuanjing of Nuctech, there was also special attention paid to how these e-commerce policies can impact small and medium sized companies.

The conference’s ultimate goal is to promote access to a centralised support framework so that enterprises of all sizes can work together to sustain a balanced global trading network.

What Next?

The conference is currently scheduled to happen every two years in varying regions. But for now, the success of this first conference shows the growing demand for networking and collaboration in e-commerce.

It’s a great opportunity for enterprises of varying sizes to collaborate on a shared goal: to create an international e-market that works well, and to come up with business strategies that safeguard both the businesses and customer from illicit and damaging trading practices.

Cross-border e-commerce fulfills the need for a personalised and customised experience. It allows customers to buy goods globally, and sellers to trade all over the world safely and efficiently. What remains is creating a way for small and medium sized businesses based outside of China to be able to access that strategy with confidence.

Find out how ACOLINK can help UK businesses to enter the Chinese Market here through our services and solutions.