By:
Fred Yaw Sarpong
Mr. Emmanuel Doni-Kwame, Managing
Director of World Trade Centre Accra has underscored the need for businesses to
tap the potential of cross-border e-commerce in advancing world business
transactions and trade negotiations.
He highlighted the new
opportunities offered by cross-border e-commerce in the world's largest consumer
market and confirmed that China’s growing purchasing power will create a huge
potential market for cross-border e-commerce.
Mr. Doni-Kwame said this at
the 14th World Business Leaders Roundtable (WBLR) held in China as part of the 2015
China International Fair for Investment and Trade which attracted business leaders from the United
Kingdom, Germany, Ghana, China and India, among other countries.
On his part, the Chairman
of World Trade Centres Association, Ghazi Abu Nahlsaid said: “China's efforts
to establish the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, the Silk Road Fund, and
its four free trade zones have not only created great capital flows and boosted
infrastructure construction, they have also opened up the Chinese market, where
the middle class has become increasingly stronger.”
The Daily Express gathered
that China's cross-border e-commerce has developed rapidly in recent years. In
2014, the country's cross-border e-commerce trade volume was 4.2 trillion yuan
(US$670 billion), up 33% year-on-year, and it has been estimated that by 2016,
China's cross-border e-commerce trade volume will reach 6.5 trillion yuan.
Stephen Phillips, CEO of
the China-Britain Business Council, indicated that Chinese companies'
internationalization efforts will lead to more collaboration opportunities.
He mentioned that many
Chinese enterprises, such as Alibaba and Jingdong, are trying to build
connections with other countries in the world and go global, just like many
export companies in Britain. As a result, there are great opportunities for
collaboration between China and the rest of the world, particularly as China
implements its Belt and Road strategy.
The Vice-Chairman of China
Council for the Promotion of International Trade, Wang Jingzhen explained that
cross-border e-commerce was one of the five key points proposed by President Xi
Jinping which is an important part of connecting infrastructure.
"The Belt and Road
initiative has opened up a more convenient trading environment for cross-border
e-commerce, which is growing rapidly,” Jingzhen said.
He added that both China's
Outbound Direct Investment (ODI) to the world and foreign direct investment
into the country saw strong growth between January and July, leaving the
world's second-largest economy firmly on track to meet its growth target in
2015.
Data from the China’s Ministry
of Commerce shows that foreign direct investment (FDI) into China grew by 7.9%
year-on-year to 471.1 billion yuan (US$74 billion) through the first seven
months of this year, while China's ODI grew at a dynamic pace in the
January-July period, jumping 20.8% on a year-on-year basis to US$63.5 billion.
The country became a net
capital exporter last year as the ODI figure of US$116 billion exceeded capital
inflows for the first time.
Wang Shouwen, China’s Vice
Minister of Commerce, said the fast-growing pace of ODI can be attributed to a
range of developments that have taken place at home and abroad.
In addition, FDI into
China's non-financial sector is expected to increase by 4% year-on-year to US$125
billion this year, which would be helpful to boost the country's high-end manufacturing
industries and the service sector," said Wang.
China is currently discussing
finer details on services and goods trading, as well as investment and
technology collaboration with the 10 members of the Association of Southeast
Asian Nations (ASEAN).
ASEAN is China's
third-biggest trading partner, with trade between the two worth over US$480
billion in 2014, up 8.23% from a year earlier.
The region hopes to achieve
bilateral trade with China worth US$500 billion by the end of this year and US$1
trillion by 2020, with two-way investment levels of US$150 billion by 2020.
Ni Chao, Vice-Mayor of
Xiamen, said sustainable development will become a key factor in determining
the nation's future economic shape.
“The European debt crisis
to a certain extent offers Chinese companies an opportunity to acquire high-end
and greener European companies, especially ones in Italy, Germany, the
Netherlands and the United Kingdom, at bargain prices,” Ni said.
Jack Ma, Executive Chairman
of Alibaba Group Holding Limited, also underlined his commitment to a strategic
agreement signed between the company and officials in Fujian province.
The group said it is going
to use its big data and cloud computing expertise to help develop e-commerce
for products made in Fujian, as well as helping the provincial government with
its procurement activities, administrative approvals and credit systems.
Su Shulin, Governor of
Fujian, stated that his Province "has a lot of advantages when it comes to
economic growth" as it enjoys "a lot of favorable policies" from
central government.
The Chairman of Otto Group,
a German e-commerce retail company that operates in more than 20 countries also
spoke of the success of their e-commerce business in China.
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