Shanghai looks to boost cross-border e-commerce, exhibition economy

Shanghai has unveiled two action plans for promoting the high-quality development of both cross-border e-commerce as well as the exhibition economy.

The plans are expected to contribute to the city's goal of becoming a global leader in these areas, as well as enhance its global resource allocation capacity and elevate its level as an international trade center.

On Cross-border E-commerce

As one of the earliest port cities to launch a pilot program for cross-border e-commerce, Shanghai has seen rapid growth in cross-border e-commerce, achieving a leap from a scale of tens of billions yuan to hundreds of billions. From January to June this year, the imports and exports of cross-border e-commerce added up to 141.96 billion yuan (US$19.8 billion), a year-on-year increase of 84 percent.

International cross-border e-commerce platforms, domestic e-commerce platforms, and self-built websites have been developing rapidly, and the professional services system for cross-border e-commerce, covering logistics, payment and operation, is generally complete.

Also, the city's enterprises have built more than 138 overseas warehouses cumulatively, with a construction area of over 1.79 million square meters.

"Shanghai's Action Plan for Promoting High-Quality Development of Cross-Border E-Commerce (2023-2025)" proposes 18 key tasks in five aspects.

It emphasizes cultivating independent brands and supporting cross-border e-commerce enterprises, promoting innovative models and developing new growth drivers, as well as strengthening technological empowerment and promoting the development of overseas warehouses.

The plan also stresses optimizing regulatory services and creating a better business environment, as well as strengthening exchanges and cooperation to build a good industry ecology.

For instance, it clarifies that the city encourages leading cross-border e-commerce enterprises to establish headquarters, supports high-quality cross-border e-commerce companies to be included in Shanghai's key foreign trade enterprises, and provides them with facilitation policies for customs clearance, taxation, and foreign exchange, as well as supporting relevant credit insurance premiums. It also supports such firms in registering overseas trademarks and applying for overseas patents.

On Exhibition Economy

Shanghai is also one of the world's major exhibition cities, ranking first in the country in terms of the number of exhibitions held and exhibition area, and ranking among the top in the world.

Since the beginning of this year, the municipal and district governments have continuously introduced supportive policies, and the city's exhibition economy has shown a comprehensive recovery and rapid growth.

In the first half of the year, major exhibition venues in Shanghai held 169 exhibitions and events, with a total area of approximately 7.59 million square meters which has recovered to more than 80 percent of the same period in 2019, according to Zhang Guohua, deputy director of the city's Commission of Commerce.

Especially in the second quarter this year, the total exhibition area reached 6.29 million square meters, up 13.1 percent compared with the same period in 2019. In June alone, six large-scale exhibitions with an area of more than 100,000 square meters each were held, for a combined exhibition area of 1.11 million square meters.

The planned total exhibition area in the second half of the year will be larger than 8.8 million square meters, reaching more than 90 percent of the level of the same period in 2019, Zhang said.

The city expects to see the total exhibition area for the whole year exceeding 16 million square meters, far surpassing the figures in 2020 and 2021, which were both about 11 million square meters.

The "Three-Year Action Plan for Promoting the High-Quality Development of the Exhibition Economy and Building Shanghai into an International Exhibition Capital (2023-2025)" clearly states the city's target. By 2025, Shanghai's exhibition economy is expected see further enhancement in global resource allocation capacity, global impact, and international competitiveness.

The plan puts forward 20 measures in five areas, namely, serving national strategic tasks, enhancing the global resource allocation capacity, optimizing the exhibition economy's industrial layout and building a new ecosystem, amplifying the comprehensive driving effect of the exhibition economy, and building a high-quality business environment for the exhibition economy.

In terms of gathering market entities, as an example, the plan proposes that the number of institutions certified by the Global Association of the Exhibition Industry (UFI) will exceed 35, and two to three exhibition groups with international competitiveness will be cultivated.

On improving the business environment, the city also plans to build a comprehensive services system for the exhibition economy, including supporting facilities for exhibition venues, exhibition logistics, and exhibition financing.