BOC boosts financial services for cross-border e-commerce

Bank of China Ltd launched a new version of its integrated financial services plan for cross-border e-commerce on Friday to better meet the demand for financial services driven by fast growing cross-border e-commerce amid China's economic restructuring and transition.

"In the face of a complicated external environment since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade has demonstrated extraordinary resilience and an evident trend of steady growth with more high-quality dynamics. Among these, cross-border e-commerce has become a new growth driver for foreign trade ...and has brought new opportunities of development to more enterprises and groups by introducing internet technologies into foreign trade," said Lin Jingzhen, executive vice-president of Bank of China.

The country's cross-border e-commerce trade volume hit 9 trillion yuan ($1.3 trillion) in 2018, up by 11.6 percent year-on-year, according to a report issued by the e-commerce research center under the online service provider 100ec.cn. The volume exceeded 8 trillion yuan in 2017, accounting for about 30 percent of China's total imports and exports, said the Ministry of Commerce.