General

New Forces in International Trade! In recent years, digital trade has played an increasingly important role in global trade. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China pointed out that it is necessary to promote the optimization and upgrading of goods trade, innovate the development mechanism of service trade, develop digital trade, and accelerate the construction of a trade powerhouse. On April 15, the first day of the opening of the 133rd Canton Fair, the special forum of the second the Pearl River International Trade Forum held the "First Digital Trade Innovation and Development Forum", especially focusing on the topic of digital trade.

The theme of this forum is "Trade Connectivity, World Digital Leading the Future", and many well-known domestic economists and experts in the field of trade digitization have discussed the enormous promoting effect of digitization on trade. They all believe that digitization will significantly reduce trade costs and promote trade growth, while trade digitization will have a magnifying and doubling effect on economic development.

According to the data released on the forum, from a global perspective, the total global trade in goods in 2022 reached 25.3 trillion US dollars, of which the cross-border e-commerce trade in goods reached nearly 1.25 trillion US dollars; The total global trade in services is 6.8 trillion US dollars, of which digital service trade amounts to 3.8 trillion US dollars. From the perspective of China's situation, the total amount of goods trade in China last year was 42 trillion yuan, of which the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce international trade was 2.1 trillion yuan; The total amount of service trade reached 6 trillion yuan, of which digital service trade was 2.5 trillion yuan. It can be seen that digital trade presents a magnificent picture of vigorous development both globally and in China.

"At present, digital globalization is an important force supporting the progress of globalization, and digital technology is promoting the development of international trade and transnational investment in many aspects." Jiang Xiaojuan, a professor of the University of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said at the forum that the changes brought by digital trade are mainly reflected in the following aspects. One is to innovate trade models and reduce transaction costs; Secondly, it is possible to flexibly switch markets and quickly restructure production lines; The third is to innovate remote services, efficiently connect the entire chain, and promote the deepening of global division of labor cooperation; The fourth is to gather diverse information, provide channel services, and promote the global development of digital trade for small and medium-sized enterprises.

At the same time, she believes that China's digital economy has a very solid foundation and strong competitiveness in almost all aspects of digital technology development. We need to extend our data advantages, expand our service capabilities, and promote the development of overseas investment by enterprises. At the same time, we need to accelerate the development of digital trade by promoting more intergovernmental agreements on digital trade, supporting cross-border digital platforms to create a digital global transaction order, and other aspects

According to Zhang Yansheng, the chief researcher of the China Center for International Economic Exchange, 2023 is an important turning point in promoting trade digitization. We need to further consider how trade digitization can narrow the gap in application, new infrastructure, digital technology, and basic technology from the perspective of reality, super scale markets, and the advantages of the entire industry chain, so that trade digitization can truly promote high-quality economic development in the next 30 years

He stated at the forum that the next step in the development of trade digitization mainly focuses on several aspects: firstly, integrating digital and real services; Secondly, we must adhere to the development direction of digitization, networking, and intelligence; The third is to promote the supporting role of a new round of digital technology, with data empowerment as the main line, to transform, upgrade, and value transform all factors in the upstream and downstream of the industrial chain; The fourth is to make trade digitization more effective and improve total factor productivity; The fifth is to expand the amplification and doubling effect of trade digitization on the economy.

More than 90% of China's enterprises are small and medium-sized enterprises. The virtual network built on e-commerce platforms and the physical network built on highways enable a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises to participate in the international economic and trade system. "Hong Junjie, Vice President of the University of International Business and Economics, believes that digital empowerment enriches trade countries, extends trade distance, increases trade frequency, and can benefit a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in China.

However, in practice, he found that enterprises encountered some difficulties in the process of Digital transformation, "It includes lack of talents, lack of design, lack of methods, etc., but the core problem is the lack of relevant talents, which is the key problem restricting the Digital transformation of enterprises. Therefore, we need to increase talent training efforts, during which large platforms can do more to lead SMEs to better promote Digital transformation and participate in the development of digital trade and trade digitalization".

In addition, Hong Junjie stated that further improvement of the digital governance system is needed to promote the development of the digital economy. A digital governance system oriented towards development and inclusiveness should be established, utilizing technology to achieve the separation of data ownership and usage rights, and promoting data trading and flow.