General

On November 1, Chinese Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao sent a letter to New Zealand Minister of Trade and Export Growth O'Connor, representing China to formally apply to join DEPA, the depositary of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), New Zealand. The Ministry of Commerce stated that applying to join DEPA is in line with China's direction of further deepening domestic reforms and expanding high-level opening up to the outside world, and will help China strengthen cooperation in the digital economy with members under the new development pattern, and promote innovation and sustainable development. In the next step, China will carry out follow-up work with all members in accordance with the relevant procedures of DEPA.

The Digital Economy Partnership Agreement was signed online by Singapore, Chile, and New Zealand on June 12, 2020. Zhang Jianping, director of the Research Center for Regional Economic Cooperation of the Academy of the Ministry of Commerce, told a reporter from the Securities Times that DEPA is currently a tripartite agreement signed by Singapore, Chile, and New Zealand. Rules, in order to lead the industry towards a standardized and sustainable direction. This approach is also encouraged by the World Trade Organization (WTO).

Zhang Jianping believes that economic and trade rules in the field of digital economy are an important part of international economic and trade rules, and China's application to join DEPA is also a concrete manifestation of China's active docking of international economic and trade rules. At the same time, applying to join DEPA will help China better promote the healthy development of digital economy and digital trade. In recent years, China's cross-border e-commerce has developed very rapidly. After joining DEPA, there will be rules to protect the development of the digital economy, which will bring better development prospects to related industry entities.

"Although the current DEPA signatories are not large in the field of digital economy, they have development advantages. Take Singapore as an example. Singapore has always been a leader in paperless customs clearance and single window construction." Zhang Jianping said.

A single window is an electronic system that allows traders to enter standardized information at a single entry point to meet all import and export requirements, thereby achieving automated acceleration of import and export data processing.

The "Global Digital Economy White Paper" issued by the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology shows that the digital economy of 47 countries around the world will reach 32.6 trillion US dollars in 2020, accounting for 43.7% of GDP. The contribution of the digital economy to the global economy continues to increase, becoming a global response. A stabilizer of downward economic pressure. Experts believe that the proportion of economic value created by new production methods represented by digitalization has increased year by year. China needs to actively participate in international cooperation in the digital economy, maintain and improve the multilateral digital economy governance mechanism, and promptly put forward China's plans and make a Chinese voice.