State Council extends cross-border zones to facilitate e-commerce

China will set up more cross-border e-commerce pilot zones to facilitate trade and boost China's global competitiveness, under a decision made at a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

The meeting decided to extend the success of such zones to more cities with good infrastructure and strong trade and e-commerce development potential. The State Council set up the original initiative in Hangzhou in 2015 before it was expanded to another 12 cities, including Shanghai, Tianjin and Chongqing, starting in early 2016.

Some practices are going national, like online comprehensive service platforms with customs clearance, logistics, tax refunds, payment, fundraising and risk control services, and offline industrial parks with whole-industrial-chain services.