General

Various durian products from Malaysia, longan from Cambodia... With the help of cross-border e-commerce platforms, more high-quality agricultural products from countries along the "the Belt and Road" can reach Chinese consumers' tables directly. In addition to cross-border e-commerce, cooperation between China and countries along the "the Belt and Road" in digital trade fields such as telemedicine and collaborative office is also booming.

The rapid development of digital trade has become an important area of cooperation between China and countries along the "the Belt and Road". By the end of 2022, China had signed a memorandum of understanding on the cooperation of the "Digital Silk Road" with 17 countries, and established a bilateral cooperation mechanism of the "Silk Road E-commerce" with 23 countries. The cooperation in cross-border trade, digital currency, qualification certification and other international trade areas has become increasingly extensive, and the digital trade cooperation has become increasingly close. The "the Belt and Road" connectivity presents a new feature of online and offline integration and the integration of reality and virtual development.

There is demand, conditions and foundation

The digital trade cooperation between China and the countries along the "the Belt and Road" has a strong demand and solid foundation.

At present, some countries along the "the Belt and Road" have weak digital infrastructure and low Internet access. Under the influence of the COVID-19, countries along the "the Belt and Road" have generally begun to put more investment in digital infrastructure on the post epidemic agenda.

Wan Zhe, a researcher at the the Belt and Road Institute of Beijing Normal University, said that China has become a big country in digital trade, with e-commerce transaction volume and mobile payment transaction scale ranking first in the world. The foundation of digital industrialization is solid, and the pace of industrial digitalization continues to accelerate. China's digital transformation in the fields of telecommunications, artificial intelligence, satellite navigation systems, submarine optical cables, and monitoring systems is progressing smoothly and has a good industrial foundation. With the advantages of e-commerce technology application, model innovation and market size, China has promoted the construction of the "Digital Silk Road" in countries along the "the Belt and Road", helped relevant countries to accelerate the construction of digital infrastructure, improve Internet penetration, and promote the interconnection of digital infrastructure, creating new opportunities for economic growth and digital transformation of relevant countries.

Since the formal proposal of building the "Digital Silk Road" in 2017, China has continued to strengthen cooperation with countries along the "the Belt and Road" in frontier fields such as digital economy, artificial intelligence, nanotechnology, quantum computers, etc., to promote the construction of big data, cloud computing, smart cities and other fields, and constantly promote the innovative development of the "the Belt and Road" construction.

Taking e-commerce as an example, China has actively promoted the cooperation of "Silk Road e-commerce" and focused on cultivating new growth points of trade and investment. So far, China has established bilateral e-commerce cooperation mechanisms with 28 countries, and the construction of multilateral and regional e-commerce cooperation mechanisms such as China-Central and Eastern Europe, China-Central Asia and SCO has achieved positive results.

The "the Belt and Road" Digital Trade Development Index Report (2022) released by Huaxin Research Institute recently measured the development of digital trade between China and 30 countries along the "the Belt and Road". The results show that in recent years, the digital trade between countries along the "the Belt and Road" and China has shown a good development trend. Among them, Asian countries have closer cooperation with China, especially ASEAN countries. Among the top 10 countries in the composite index, there are 8 Asian countries, 5 of which are ASEAN countries. The report shows that India and Singapore have obvious advantages in the development potential of digital trade. As a data center hub in the Asia-Pacific region, Singapore has a strong trade foundation. Vietnam, Malaysia, the United Arab Emirates, the Czech Republic and the Philippines have relatively advanced digital trade infrastructure. Singapore, Azerbaijan and other countries have outstanding performance in business environment, financing environment and other sub-sectors.

Soft-hard connectivity promotes cooperation and upgrading

As an important part of the digital economy, digital trade represents a new trend in the development of global trade, is a new engine for the growth of international trade, and injects new vitality into promoting the recovery and growth of the world economy. Wan Zhe believes that there is huge space and potential for digital trade between China and countries along the "the Belt and Road", such as business opportunities in cross-border e-commerce parks, digital transportation and other fields deserve special attention.

In order to fully tap the potential, Wan Zhe suggested that we should focus on improving the cooperation mechanism from four aspects to promote the upgrading of cooperation.

First, promote cooperation in infrastructure construction of the "Digital Silk Road" and optimize digital "hard" connectivity. In combination with the local needs and conditions of countries along the "the Belt and Road", cross-border cooperation in digital infrastructure such as communication, Internet and new computing power can be strengthened to promote the interconnection of international digital infrastructure and lay the foundation for the development of digital trade.

Second, relying on multilateral and bilateral cooperation platforms, strengthen the dialogue and exchange of digital economy policies between governments and optimize "soft" connectivity. Deepen cooperation in data flow, market access, taxation and other related standards and rules of digital economy and trade, create a safe, open, cooperative and orderly environment for the development of digital trade, and further smooth the docking and connection of rules, processes and international trade supervision models. We should strengthen cooperation in research and development of digital trade-related technologies, further expand the application scenarios of digital trade, and improve the quality and efficiency of digital trade.

Third, focus on key regions to promote digital trade cooperation. We should focus on accelerating digital trade cooperation in key regions such as the "the Belt and Road" and RCEP, and give full play to the existing bulk commodity digital trade platform, cross-border e-commerce development foundation and platform economic advantages.

Fourth, strengthen digital trade talent training in countries along the "the Belt and Road". It can train digital economy, cross-border e-commerce and other digital trade talents for countries along the "the Belt and Road" through vocational education and training such as Luban Workshop.

The report also pointed out that it is necessary to deeply study the current situation of digital trade development in countries along the the Belt and Road, closely follow the pulse of digital economy development, give play to the advantages of cooperation between China and countries along the Belt and Road, boost digital trade cooperation, achieve mutual benefit and win-win results for all countries, and jointly promote high-quality economic development.