Heze, East China's Shandong province, has been focusing on developing cross-border e-commerce industry in recent years as a way to boost its foreign trade amid global economic uncertainties caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The advantages of cross-border e-commerce lie in its lower costs, higher efficiency and less intermediate links, which will help more local exporters, especially small and medium-sized companies, to better tap into the overseas market, according to industrial experts.

In recent years, the Heze government has issued a series of policies to support the development of cross-border e-commerce entities in the fields of finance, taxation, and training.

More efforts have been made to help foreign trade firms expand their clientele and improve trade facilities and services, including building cross-border e-commerce platforms, cross-border logistics, and overseas warehouses. Currently, 10 of the city's 600 cross-border e-commerce enterprises have set up overseas warehouses.

Heze is among the most active players in Shandong's international trade relations, and the city has laid a solid foundation for developing this new model of foreign trade. The city's customs office said that during the first 11 months of this year, Heze's foreign trade volume totaled 58.82 billion yuan ($8.43 billion), growing 11.7 percent year-on-year. Driven by cross-border e-commerce, its monthly growth rate of imports and exports in May ranked among the first two cities in Shandong.

The recent 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China emphasized that more efforts need to be made to promote high-level opening-up, and foster a new pattern of development that is focused on the domestic economy and features positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows.

Heze also encouraged traditional foreign trade firms to upgrade and integrate cross-border e-commerce into traditional industries. The city has attracted some international well-known cross-border e-commerce platforms to set up service centers including Alibaba, Amazon, and eBay.

In November, Heze was approved by the State Council to establish a State-level cross-border e-commerce pilot zone, which will further serve the city's cross-border e-commerce industry and help the city expand in international markets.

The pilot zone is expected to implement innovative practices relating to governance, management, service and synergic development to create a beneficial ecosystem for cross-border e-commerce and cultivate a complete industrial chain.