Cross-border e-commerce fuels Ningbo-CEEC trade growth

Products imported from Serbia are displayed at the Qianwan Free Trade Zone in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang province. [Photo/Ningbo Evening News]

Cross-border e-commerce has emerged as an engine fueling Ningbo's trade with Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC). 

Zhang Yan, head of the Ningbo municipal bureau of commerce, said that cross-border e-commerce is allowing more high-quality goods from the CEEC to enter the domestic market and that the city supports more local companies expanding their business presence in the region. 

Professor Huang Qifan, vice chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, has predicted that 50 percent of China's import and export trade will be completed through cross-border e-commerce by 2035.

A wide range of CEEC commodities stocked in the Qianwan Free Trade Zone in Ningbo, such as dairy products from Poland and baby rice noodles from Serbia, are imported via cross-border e-commerce platforms.

In the first five months of this year, Ningbo Lidegou E-commerce Co Ltd, a local cross-border e-commerce giant, imported goods worth about 80 million yuan ($12.3 million) from seven Central and Eastern European countries including the Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland, up 40 percent year-on-year.

Chen Yanyan, general manager of the company, said that many Central and Eastern European countries are big producers of mother and child products, wine and cosmetics, which have competitive prices due to the relative low transportation costs and supportive policies rolled out by Ningbo.

Speaking of the upcoming 2nd China-CEEC Expo slated to be held in Ningbo from June 8 to 11, Chen said that as an exhibitor, the company hopes to establish links with more quality suppliers during the event so as to further enrich its import portfolio from the CEEC.

The company is also looking to help domestic consumers purchase more CEEC goods through online pavilions and livestreams, he added.

Besides allowing the CEEC to enter China, cross-border e-commerce has also opened a sales channel for Chinese products to be sold in Europe.

One Chinese company that has benefited is China-Base Ningbo Group Co Ltd. The company has exported goods manufactured in China including gardening equipment and outdoor products to CEEC through cross-border e-commerce.