This photo shows an electronic endoscope during the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in east China's Shanghai. (PHOTO: XINHUA)

Edited by LIN Yuchen

Silk Road e-commerce (SRE) is attracting more participating countries to deepen international cooperation with China, further diversifying online trade, which could be reflected by the fifth China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai.

"We will establish pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation and build national demonstration zones for innovative development of trade in services, so as to encourage innovation in trade and promote high-quality Belt and Road cooperation," said President Xi Jinping, at the opening ceremony of the fifth CIIE on November 4.

Aiming at leveraging the respective comparative advantages with partner countries, SRE has established an e-commerce bilateral cooperation mechanism with 24 countries since 2016, when China and Chile signed the first bilateral e-commerce cooperation memorandum of understanding.

A total of 132 cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones have been constructed by the State Council, providing tax preferential policies for eligible products while boosting the local economy of zone cities.

Measures like live marketing and setting up foreign-ambassador-endorsed online stores have been more widely adopted. The 2022 China-ASEAN Silk Road E-commerce Forum, held this September, welcomed multiple ASEAN ambassadors in front of online streaming cameras to promote their products.

"SRE advances China's Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in multiple facets, including promoting international trade between countries along the route through digitizing their logistics and payments," said Zhang Li, official at Ministry of Commerce, adding that online trade between BRI countries has never been more convenient.

In the first quarter of 2022, China witnessed a 92.7 percent increase of e-commerce exports toward BRI countries. The overall size of cross-border e-commerce in China, additionally, had reached two trillion RMB by the end of 2021.

Sixteen countries have signed the digital silk road memorandum of understanding with China, representing the country's successful construction of e-commerce cooperation and dialogue mechanism with regions, including middle and east Europe and five central Asian countries.

SRE cooperation will facilitate the customization of traditional foreign trade enterprises through exploring the huge potential of cross-border e-commerce, according to Ali Obaird Al Dhaheri, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) ambassador to China, adding that the UAE wishes to continue to develop bilateral relationships with China through SRE.

The overall size of the digital economy within China has maintained being the second largest in the world for many successive years, being continually supportive to the development of the national economy, according to the State Council.