Hangzhou plans to create the first national comprehensive trial area for cross-border e-commerce! Striving to create a digital comprehensive bonded zone.

[Dahecai Lifu News] On February 14th, the “Implementation Plan for the Construction of the Core Area of the Global Digital Trade Port in Hangzhou (2025-2027)” was recently publicly soliciting opinions.

The development goals of the plan are clear: by 2027, the city will achieve a digital trade volume of 440 billion yuan, with more than 350 outbound brands in the digital trade sector, more than 1,600 scale enterprises, and more than 35 platform enterprises with global competitiveness.

The plan proposes the development layout of “one summit, three zones, and six bases”:

In a moment

The Global Digital Trade Expo will be permanently located in Hangzhou, held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center every September. Within a two-square-kilometer area around the center, a digital trade innovation port will be built, integrating high-end trade exhibitions, trade headquarters economy, digital expos, trade services, etc., forming a ‘trade + exhibition’ industry cluster. Leveraging the role of Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport hub and the airport economic demonstration zone, it will establish a multi-billion national industry fund serving digital trade, high-energy public service platforms, and implementing major digital trade projects.

Three zones

Binjiang District: Relying on the national-level characteristic service export base, Internet of Things town, Internet town, and China Data Valley, the development focuses on data resource and property rights trading, Internet-related services, digital finance, and ‘digital+’ services, aiming to build a digital service center, payment settlement center, and service outsourcing center.

Xiaoshan District: Relying on platforms such as China Vision Valley, Information Port Town, Turing Town, etc., develop cross-border e-commerce and digital finance, visual intelligence, music and film, digital logistics, and increase innovation exploration in the field of industrial product cross-border e-commerce and cross-border platforms.

Qiantang District: Relying on Hangzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, China Medicine Port, and Da Chuang Town, develop cross-border e-commerce, ‘bonded+’ business, ‘digital+’ services, and metaverse. Deepen the innovation of cross-border e-commerce business and build a smart manufacturing trade center.

“Six Base”

Support the development of Alibaba’s digital trade headquarters in Yuhang, the digital game base in West Lake Artistic Creation Town, the digital film and television base in Linping, the digital culture base in Liangzhu, the digital fashion base in Shangchengli, and the digital e-sports base in Gongshu, gather enterprises in the digital trade industry chain, and create the most optimal development ecosystem.

The plan specifies 27 key tasks:

（一）Building the world’s top digital trade show

1. Build a global digital trade innovation achievement display window. Gather global high-end exhibition resources, with the internationalization rate of participating enterprises not less than 30%. Set up special zones for artificial intelligence, humanoid robots, low-altitude economy, aerospace, and aviation, etc., each session driving the digital trade volume of participating enterprises to grow by more than 10%. Link up with internationally renowned exhibitions to achieve ‘exhibition-led expansion,’ promoting the participation of market entities from over 100 countries (regions). (Responsible units: Municipal Commerce Bureau, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Bureau, Municipal Transportation Bureau, Airport Economic Demonstration Zone Management Committee, Municipal Airport Construction Investment Group, Municipal Business Travel Group)

2. Build a global platform for the release of digital trade standard rules. Strengthen cooperation with international organizations and authoritative institutions, upgrade the Night of Digital Trade, continuously release major achievements such as global digital trade development reports and the top 100 list. Organize and participate in economic and trade negotiations of member countries such as RCEP, CPTPP, and DEPA, to strive for the right to speak in the formulation of digital trade rules for the country. (Responsible Unit: Municipal Bureau of Commerce)

Build a global digital trade industry cooperation bridge. Hold a series of innovation competitions to promote project landing, product application, and results transformation. Attract leading cities in global digital trade to organize companies to exhibit, invite countries from around the world to participate in the exhibition, and unleash the benefits of greening and universalizing digital trade. [Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Investment Promotion Bureau, Municipal Foreign Affairs Office, Airport Economic Demonstration Zone Management Committee, Municipal Airport Construction Investment Group, governments of various districts and counties]

(2) Building the first city in the country’s digital trade industry chain

4. Seize the five digital trade sub-sectors. Support various digital trade platforms to innovate one-stop services such as supply chain finance and logistics, and develop digital ordering trade represented by cross-border e-commerce. Develop digital technology services such as large-scale out-of-sea trade. Optimize digital financial services, digital cultural tourism, visual intelligence, and other digital service trades. Strengthen digital media, digital film and television, animation games, and other digital product trades. Build a multi-level data element trading market and ecosystem with China Data Valley as the core carrier. [Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Propaganda Department, Municipal Financial Office, Municipal Culture, Radio, Film and Television Tourism Bureau, various district and county (city) governments]

5. Build digital trade characteristic parks. Relying on the airport economic demonstration zone, characteristic towns, national-level characteristic service export bases, build the first batch of 12 digital trade characteristic parks to lead the coordinated development of digital trade with animation games, traditional Chinese medicine, intellectual property rights, film and television, technical services, artificial intelligence, security, and other industries. [Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Committee of Propaganda, Municipal Health Commission, Municipal Economic and Information Bureau, Municipal Airport Construction Investment Group, various district and county (city) governments]

Promote the overseas expansion of operators in the digital trade market. Cultivate leading enterprises in digital trade, attract headquarters enterprises in digital trade, incubate growth-oriented enterprises in digital trade, and transform traditional trade enterprises, so as to drive thousands of traditional trade enterprises in the city to go global through digital trade in the core area of global digital trade port. [Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Investment Promotion Bureau, various districts and counties (cities) governments]

（Three）Building the first area of innovation in the digital trade system of the national pilot free trade zone

Focus on the full chain innovation of digital cultural trade. Simplify the approval process for digital content distribution licenses and the administrative approval for domestic sales of digitally exported content, strive for national support to grant more authority to Hangzhou in the management of online games, and increase the number of online game approvals in Hangzhou. Explore negative list management for digital international cooperation in various fields. (Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Party Committee Propaganda Department)

Focus on innovating the entire data trading chain. Carry out pilot projects for data asset registration, innovate the service model for data asset evaluation. Cultivate a data circulation ecosystem, support the Hangzhou Data Exchange in exploring the international version of data trading. Strengthen the construction of standards for cross-border data circulation, establish a center for policy consultation on data exportation. (Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Data Resource Bureau, Municipal Committee of Cyberspace Affairs, Municipal Finance Bureau, Municipal Financial Investment Group, Binjiang District)

Focus on the full-chain innovation of the basic system of digital trade. Accelerate the launch of the first domestic digital trade statistical system. Support the establishment of a legal guarantee system adapted to the reform and innovation in the field of digital trade. (Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Intermediate People’s Court, Municipal Bureau of Justice)

Focus on innovating the entire chain of digital business environment. Strive to create a digital comprehensive bonded zone, develop new offshore trade. Iterate the digital free trade comprehensive application system, carry out a pilot project for international professional qualification recognition in digital trade, and innovate the new mode of mediation for digital trade disputes. [Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Qianjiang Customs, Municipal Economic and Information Bureau, Municipal Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, Municipal Intermediate People’s Court, Municipal Judicial Bureau, Municipal Trade Promotion Association, various district and county (city) governments]

(4) Build the first comprehensive trial zone for cross-border e-commerce in the country

11. The first to release the Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Trial Zone 2.0 plan. Strive for national support to release the Hangzhou Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Trial Zone 2.0 plan, form a new list of institutional innovations around cross-border pharmaceutical OTC imports, cross-border e-commerce 9810 tax refund facilitation, and promote a new round of national cross-border e-commerce comprehensive reform. (Responsible units: Municipal Commerce Bureau, Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Qianjiang Customs, Municipal Taxation Bureau)

12. Promote the integration of ‘live streaming + platform economy + cross-border e-commerce’. Promote cooperation between MCN institutions, cross-border e-commerce sellers, and platforms, and build provincial live streaming demonstration bases. Support WEB3.0 and large-scale enterprises in providing digital solutions for the entire industry chain for cross-border e-commerce enterprises, forming a demonstration case of ‘cross-border e-commerce + artificial intelligence’. [Responsible units: Municipal Commerce Bureau, Municipal Economic and Information Bureau, various district and county (city) governments]

Promote the doubling of the scale of cross-border e-commerce exports. Add five hundred billion cross-border e-commerce export industrial clusters and build five hundred billion cross-border e-commerce parks. Xiaoshan District’s cross-border e-commerce export scale exceeds 20 billion yuan, Binjiang District and Qiantang District’s export scale exceeds 10 billion yuan, driving the city’s cross-border e-commerce exports of 9610, 9710, 9810 to double again on the basis of 2024. [Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Qianjiang Customs, various districts, counties (cities) government]

（Five）Building a global cross-border payment settlement center

14. Develop commodity investment and trade settlement services. Seize the opportunity of constructing the hub for commodity resource allocation in the entire province, attract the headquarters or procurement and sales centers, supply chain management centers, and risk management centers of commodity enterprises to settle in, launch various types of spot-futures combined commodity indices, develop cross-border payment for commodity investment and trade, data collection, and business services, and build an innovative center for commodity investment and trade services. (Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Financial Office, People’s Bank of China Zhejiang Branch)

Support the global layout of cross-border payment institutions. Support the exploration of the application of digital RMB for cross-border payments, support Hangzhou cross-border payment institutions in applying for global payment licenses, by 2027, the settlement amount of cross-border e-commerce payments will exceed 1 trillion yuan, and the construction of a global cross-border payment settlement center. (Responsible units: Municipal Party Committee Financial Office, Municipal Commerce Bureau, People’s Bank of China Zhejiang Branch)

Facilitate cross-border trade, investment, and financing in emerging markets. Promote the facilitation of cross-border investment and financing, pilot the registration-free reinvestment of foreign-invested enterprises in the domestic market, and pilot banks directly handling external debt registration. Support exploring diversified settlement methods such as new type of barter trade in emerging countries. (Responsible units: Municipal Financial Office, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Commerce Bureau, People’s Bank of China Zhejiang Branch)

Build a comprehensive global digital trade service center

17. Landing digital trade international service agencies. Support the development of institutions such as the Fourth Industrial Revolution Industrial Accelerator of the United Nations Industrial Development Organization and the Digital Innovation and Sustainable Development Center of the United Nations International Trade Center in Hangzhou, actively strive for the landing of functional branches of the BRICS organization and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization in Hangzhou, and carry out global digital trade innovation incubation, information exchange, and risk warning cooperation. (Responsible unit: Municipal Bureau of Commerce)

Promote the interconnection of digital ports. Strive to explore the establishment of a ‘digital enclosure’ in the Hangzhou comprehensive bonded zone. Support Zhejiang Electronic Port to assist in the construction of the Khorgos Smart Port in Kazakhstan, and accelerate the connection of the two countries’ international trade ‘single window’. (Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Qianjiang Customs, Qiantang District)

Build a public service platform for digital trade. Promote cooperation with provincial cross-border e-commerce public service platforms, upgrade Hangzhou’s cross-border e-commerce public service platform. Accelerate the introduction of leading domestic and foreign trade comprehensive service platform enterprises, cultivate a group of digital service agencies for customs clearance and bonded supervision, tax compliance, intellectual property rights, brand certification, etc. (Responsible units: Municipal Bureau of Commerce, Qianjiang Customs, Municipal Market Supervision Bureau, Municipal Tax Bureau, Municipal Council for the Promotion of International Trade)

(7) Building a global digital logistics hub

20. Improve the level of aviation logistics hub. Encourage the opening of more fifth freedom traffic rights routes and strive for the seventh freedom traffic rights. Play the role of the aviation logistics public information platform, link international intelligent cargo stations, and innovate the pilot of electronic air freight. (Responsible units: Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Commerce Bureau, Xiaoshan Airport Customs, CAAC Zhejiang Air Traffic Management Division)

21. Support the global layout of the digital trade hub (eHub). Encourage leading digital trade companies to set up public overseas warehouses and establish overseas localized service networks in countries along the “Belt and Road”. Support leading companies such as Cainiao to establish digital trade hubs (eHub) at global logistics hub nodes, and build the “123” fast goods logistics circle. [Responsible units: Municipal Commerce Bureau, Municipal Transportation Bureau, various districts, counties (cities) governments]

22. Develop multimodal transportation of sea, land, air, and water. Give full play to the role of Xiasha Port and Dongzhou International Port, develop transit business with Ningbo-Zhoushan Port, Shanghai Yangshan Port, and Jiaxing Zapu Port, develop the ‘air-rail-road’ intermodal transportation at Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, and the ‘rail-road-water’ intermodal transportation at Xiaoshan Bailutang, create an internationally radiating air-sea transportation hub and a public-private-water transportation hub connecting the Yangtze River Delta. (Responsible units: Municipal Transportation Bureau, Municipal Development and Reform Commission, Municipal Commerce Bureau, Lin’an Economic Development Zone Management Committee, Municipal Investment and Construction Group, Hangzhou Xiaoshan International Airport, Xiaoshan District, Qiantang District, Fuyang District)

Development Guarantee

23. Establish a specialized operation mechanism. Establish a specialized operation mechanism for urban and district linkage, government-enterprise collaboration, formulate annual work plans, compile lists of important indicators, major projects, and key tasks for implementation, hold regular meetings, and coordinate to solve major issues.

Develop a supporting policy. Introduce relevant supporting policies to provide financial support for leading enterprises introduction, market entities cultivation, brand promotion, land and energy use, credit financing, etc.

25. Strengthen a special empowerment. Focus on the pain points, difficulties, and blockages of the entire industry chain of digital trade, actively strive for the country to grant special empowerment in the field of digital trade, and lead the institutional opening of digital trade.

26. Make good use of an industry fund. Give full play to the role of the national service trade fund phase II for digital trade in landing in Hangzhou, establish sub-funds in the field of digital trade, and support the development of small and medium-sized digital trade enterprises in the core area of global digital trade ports.

Cultivate a group of digital trade talents. Cooperate with Zhejiang Gongshang University to establish the first digital trade college in China, and set up a digital trade college training and practice base in the air economic demonstration zone. Support Zhejiang Media College and other universities in Hangzhou to establish majors in digital cultural trade and other digital trade fields. Support qualified digital trade talents to be recognized as high-level talents in Hangzhou, and enjoy corresponding benefits and facilitation services according to policies.

(Source: Dahe Cailifang)

Source: East Money

Author: Dahe Cailifang