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The establishment of the Silk Road e-commerce cooperation pilot zone (hereinafter referred to as "pilot zone") is a major decision and deployment made by the Party Central Committee with Comrade Xi Jinping at its core. Last October, after the State Council approved and agreed to establish a pilot zone in Shanghai, the Ministry of Commerce, together with the Shanghai Municipal Government, strengthened the organization and implementation of the pilot zone. Overall, the construction of the pilot zone has started well, the tasks of taking the lead in trying have been smoothly started and implemented, and some work has achieved initial results and has been replicated and promoted in the Yangtze River Delta region, laying a good foundation for achieving the goals set out in the plan.

Alignment with high-standard international trade rules

Five institutional opening-up explorations take the lead in seeing results. Expand international data services. A batch of high-quality and exploratory data products were listed on the international board of Shanghai Data Exchange, including cross-border data products such as global patent information, business information, and import and export data. Open up the "one-time declaration, bilateral customs clearance" service model. Under the framework of the Asia-Pacific Electronic Demonstration Port Network (APMEN) mechanism, Yitong International and Singapore carried out a pilot cross-border mutual assistance customs clearance project, built a compliant data channel for trade logistics, and generated declaration data that meets the customs clearance requirements of China and Singapore. Accelerate the construction of a number of paperless trade infrastructures, supported by the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) initiated by COSCO Shipping, to realize the paperless delivery of blockchain electronic bills of lading. Yitong International has become a service operator of the Pan-European Online Public Procurement Platform (Peppol) and has completed the construction of the main functions of the cross-border electronic invoice interoperability platform, and successfully completed the first invoice verification test between enterprises in Shanghai and Singapore. Establish data sharing channels. Shanghai Cross-border Public Service Platform cooperates with eWTP (World Electronic Trade Platform) to build the data sharing mechanism of Shanghai Thailand Eastern Economic Corridor Free Trade Zone, exploring cross-border e-commerce transactions and logistics information interconnection to Thailand. Promote cross-border RMB settlement, advance the pilot of digital RMB bilateral mode, implement cross-border settlement in five scenarios: oil and gas trade, free trade accounts, bulk commodities, service trade, and travel consumption, among which the settlement of oil and gas trade and free trade accounts is the first pilot project in the country.

II. Prioritize Cultivation of Main Body

The pilot zone has built "Two Zones, Two Alliances, One Pavilion" important carriers in stages, which have attracted and served domestic and foreign companies. "Two Zones" refers to the construction of central functional zones and radiation leading zones in Pudong and Hongqiao. Pudong New Area released a construction plan to actively align with international high-standard trade and economic rules, take the lead in testing open measures in the e-commerce field, and plans to build 3-5 industrial parks featuring "Belt and Road E-commerce," introducing and fostering over 200 high-quality "Belt and Road E-commerce" enterprises. Hongqiao International Central Business District amplifies the radiation effect of CIIE, constructs a "Belt and Road E-commerce" service system, strengthens the "platform + park" model, develops a "Belt and Road E-commerce" live broadcast economy, and creates new trade highlands with partner countries of "Belt and Road E-commerce." "Two Alliances" refer to the Overseas Warehouse Service Alliance and the "Belt and Road Cloud Products" Alliance. The Overseas Warehouse Alliance has 14 founding members, including Sinotrans, and has launched a "Belt and Road E-commerce" Overseas Warehouse Electronic Map, sorting out the overseas warehouse layout of member units and providing a search function. The "Belt and Road Cloud Products" Alliance has 20 founding members, including Singapore Enterprise Center and other trade promotion agencies and enterprises. It will hold theme promotions, characteristic product launches, and docking meetings for "Belt and Road Cloud Products." "One Pavilion" refers to the Partner Country Pavilion for "Belt and Road E-commerce." Twenty-five "Belt and Road E-commerce" National Pavilions have been established, covering 21 partner countries. The integrated promotion and sales promote high-quality products from partner countries to enter the Chinese market.

3. Priority to mechanism cooperation

Establish the Cooperative Training Center of "Belt and Road E-commerce". Integrate resources of institutions of higher learning, industry associations, and platform enterprises to focus on developing e-commerce training courses, forming a team of trainers, undertaking training and research international cooperation projects, and cultivating cross-border e-commerce and digital business talents for "Belt and Road" partner countries. Carry out the "Belt and Road Fine Products" promotion activities. Integrate the Fourth "11 Live Broadcast Months", the Import Expo E-commerce Consumption Day cum "Silk Road Cloud Commodities" E-commerce Festival, and the "2024 Shanghai Online New Year Goods Festival", hold national theme days for countries such as New Zealand, Chile, and Pakistan, establish the "Silk Road Cloud Commodities" alliance, and introduce more partner countries' featured products, food and beverage, tourism hotlines and local culture. Enhance the capability of the "Belt and Road" E-commerce Exhibition and Trading Platform. Hongqiao Global Commodity Trading Hub proposes to organize no less than 12 "Belt and Road" national cultural exchanges, trade docking, and commodity exhibitions every year, build 3-5 online national pavilions, and cultivate 100 "foreign live broadcasters". Greenland Global Commodity Trading Hub proposes to set up entrepreneurial guidance funds, launch the "Silk Road E-commerce" good things market, launch hundreds of live broadcasts throughout the year, and hold more than 50 purchasing docking, export investment, cultural exchanges, and other economic and trade and cultural promotion activities.

Fourth, to promote cooperation in the Yangtze River Delta region

Based on the arrangement for building pioneering areas in pre-pilot zones, on March 1st, the electronic port operation units of Shanghai, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Anhui, and other three provinces and one municipality jointly signed the Cooperation Agreement on Digital Technology Application, which will rely on the international cooperation mechanism of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Electronic Port Network (APMEN), bring into play the platform advantages of Hongqiao International Central Business District (CBD), and apply technologies such as cloud computing, blockchain, and big data to promote some of the achievements made in the pioneering areas in the Yangtze River Delta region, such as cross-border mutual-assistance customs clearance, cross-border electronic invoice interoperability, and the pilot of cross-border commodity traceability, so as to empower the high-quality integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region with digital means.

The Ministry of Commerce will jointly work with the Shanghai Municipal People's Government to continuously and thoroughly implement the spirit of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important speech, launch a series of combined measures on institutional opening-up, entity cultivation, and cooperation deepening, and build new heights for digital economic international cooperation. By the end of the year, it is expected that a number of demonstratively leading institutional opening-up achievements will be formed, a group of e-commerce operating entities with international competitiveness will be gathered, a number of regionally featured carriers will be developed, a group of public service platforms promoting the common development of partner countries will be established, and the high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road" will be promoted.