Canton Fair signs up partners in e-commerce

Organizers of the China Import and Export Fair, the country's largest twice-a-year trade event and a barometer of its exports, signed agreements with 12 domestic trade delegations on Wednesday to facilitate the development of its e-commerce services.

Wang Zhiping, director of the China Foreign Trade Center, said that the alliances will help Chinese exporters boost their efficiency by reducing costs.

"We will speed up efforts to build a one-stop service in this e-commerce platform, covering online inquiries, payments, logistics, customs clearance, insurance and financing for Chinese exporters," said Wang.

Wang made the remarks during a ceremony on Wednesday in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province, that featured the signing of agreements with major Chinese trade delegations. These groups are from the provinces of Guangdong, Fujian and Hunan and the cities of Chongqing, Guangzhou, Qingdao, Ningbo, Xiamen, Wuxi, Wuhan, Xi'an and Zhuhai.

"The alliances are of great importance in coping with the slowdown of China's trade and supporting a new growth model for the country's economy," Wang said.

The fair's organizers will help Chinese companies participate in overseas industry fairs to promote their products and invite overseas counterparts to invest in these provinces and cities.

"We are also building an affiliated e-commerce platform to target domestic trade, which means that the fair's e-commerce service will expand business opportunities in the overseas and domestic markets for Chinese manufacturers," Wang said.

To get around the limits of time and space that previously affected the event, which is widely known as the Canton Fair, an e-commerce platform called e-cantonfair.com was launched during the spring session this year.

He Wei, director of the Chongqing delegation to the fair and deputy director of the city's bureau of foreign trade and economic cooperation, said the e-commerce service will help local exporters to better tap the international market.

"The Canton Fair has already developed a rich resource of more than 1 million overseas buyers. The e-commerce platform will better serve Chinese exporters in conducting year-round trade with global buyers," said He.

Chongqing, along with several other cities such as Shanghai, Hangzhou, Ningbo, Zhengzhou and Guangzhou, have become State-level pilot cities to conduct foreign e-commerce business, according to the National Development and Reform Commission.

"E-commerce is a new driver of growth for the country's foreign trade, and it will become more and more important as information technology and economic globalization expand" said Gao Yaozong, deputy director of Guangzhou's bureau of foreign trade and economic cooperation.

Sources with the Guangzhou bureau said that transactions involving the city's international e-commerce activity in 2012 reached $6 billion, a year-on-year increase of more than 5 percent.

China's total e-commerce trade last year was $327 billion, up 25 percent.

Under the pilot plan, e-commerce trade will be included in customs trade statistics.

A growing number of Chinese exporters have become keen on using the Canton Fair's e-commerce service to expand their business. Zhang Xingming, general manager of Huidong Youme Shoes Factory, said that the e-commerce service will help reduce production costs by making tailored products for overseas clients.

"We have started conducting e-commerce business with overseas clients. It has helped us find more new clients and reduce the stock by making products that are more in line with clients' re-quests," Zhang said.