Good news is coming! Just now, six departments released a major announcement!

In the e-commerce sector, favorable news has arrived!

According to April 6 news from the Ministry of Commerce website, six departments including the Ministry of Commerce released the “Guiding Opinions on Better Serving the Real Economy and Promoting High-Quality Development of E-Commerce.” Among other things, it proposes developing “artificial intelligence + e-commerce,” guiding e-commerce companies to strengthen R&D and application of technologies such as artificial intelligence large models; carrying out a quality e-commerce cultivation initiative, building a standards system, and promoting mechanisms such as optimizing traffic allocation and search ranking on e-commerce platforms.

The guiding opinions also propose encouraging financial institutions and e-commerce companies to cooperate and innovate credit products and services. Support e-commerce companies that meet the conditions to issue bond financing, optimize financing and other policy processes, and support e-commerce companies that meet the conditions to raise financing through listings both domestically and internationally.

Six Departments: Promoting High-Quality Development of E-Commerce

E-commerce is an important component of the rapid development, innovation-driven activity, and abundant application in the digital economy. It has become a new driving force for developing new-quality productive forces. Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, the Cyberspace Administration of China’s Central Committee, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, and the State Administration for Market Regulation issued the “Guiding Opinions on Better Serving the Real Economy and Promoting High-Quality Development of E-Commerce” (hereinafter referred to as the “Guiding Opinions”).

The guiding opinions propose that efforts should be made to thoroughly implement a special campaign to empower small and medium-sized enterprises with digital capabilities, encourage the standardized application of electronic authentication in the e-commerce sector, and reduce the cost of digital transformation for small and medium-sized enterprises. Upgrade the national e-commerce public service platforms and improve functions such as policy interpretation, case publication, and data sharing. Guide e-commerce companies to roll out “small, fast, light, and accurate” digital products and solutions, opening data, channels, and technologies to brand merchants, small and medium-sized enterprises, and individual industrial and commercial households, to provide support for business store site selection, new product development, merchandising and product display, inventory management, and more. Support e-commerce companies in settling into China-foreign small and medium-sized enterprise cooperation zones to help small and medium-sized enterprises connect with high-quality international resources.

Implement a high-quality development project for rural e-commerce, expand application scenarios for rural e-commerce, and promote models such as direct procurement and customized production through e-commerce, to raise the level of industrialized development of rural e-commerce. Thoroughly implement “digital commerce to invigorate agriculture,” in combination with key concentrated listing nodes for featured agricultural products, to promote platforms in conducting production-sales matchmaking and skill training, open a “Local Favorites” section, and build brands for rural specialties and local products, helping agricultural products move upward. Promote the “Internet Plus” agricultural products project of moving from villages to cities, support e-commerce companies to sink into the supply chain, and develop featured livestreaming such as “village livestreaming” and “field livestreaming.” Promote upgrading and efficiency improvement in county-level commerce, improve rural parcel and delivery logistics networks, accelerate digital transformation of rural commercial outlets, and create a new driving force for rural e-commerce development.

Cultivate industrial e-commerce. Carry out “Industrial E-commerce Benefits for Enterprises” connection activities, and guide e-commerce companies to leverage their advantages to promote digital transformation in links such as R&D and manufacturing, warehousing and logistics, and sales services, in order to foster efficient coordination across the production-supply-production chain. Strengthen classified guidance and dynamic management of national e-commerce demonstration bases, and guide efforts to strengthen incubation of future industries and trademark brand building. Encourage localities to build e-commerce-featured industrial clusters based on resource endowments and locational advantages. Support eligible regions in strengthening the development of global collection and distribution systems and expanding international markets. Encourage the development of intensive models such as joint delivery, warehousing-and-delivery integration, and multimodal transport to improve the capability and efficiency of circulation organization and reduce comprehensive logistics costs. Encourage original packaging, and coordinate to advance standardized, intelligent/digital, and green transformation of e-commerce supply chains and express packaging.

Support leading e-commerce companies to increase R&D investment, strengthen core technology breakthroughs in key areas, and build an innovation ecosystem of “production-research collaboration and learning-to-use transformation.” Develop “artificial intelligence + e-commerce,” guide e-commerce companies to strengthen R&D and application of technologies such as AI large models, optimize consumer experience, lower operating costs, and improve circulation efficiency. Encourage e-commerce companies to apply technology for good, and coordinate stakeholders’ interests to optimize algorithm rules. Strengthen judicial protection of technical achievements in the e-commerce field, explore establishing rules such as disclosure of evidence and exclusion of evidence obstruction, and appropriately reduce the burden of proof on rights holders. Conduct a selection of case studies on e-commerce technology innovation and applications, and deepen the application of digital technologies.

Implement a quality e-commerce cultivation initiative, build a standards system, and promote mechanisms such as optimizing traffic allocation and search rankings on e-commerce platforms, enhancing the weight of indicators such as product quality and service reputation. Incorporate quality management and brand building into training courses to cultivate quality merchants and high-quality brands. Encourage e-commerce companies to focus on the everyday needs of people—clothing, food, housing, and transportation—so they can work with brand merchants to release lists such as “Food Maps” and “Must-Eat, Must-Buy.” Speed up network promotion of domestically made goods with long-standing brands such as “old brands.” Implement the initiative to “increase product variety, improve quality, and create brands” for consumer goods, accelerating the building of a lineup of China’s well-known consumer products.

Support Eligible E-commerce Companies to Raise Financing Through Listings Domestically and Internationally

The guiding opinions propose supporting eligible e-commerce companies in issuing bond financing, optimizing financing and other policy processes, and supporting eligible e-commerce companies to raise financing through listings both domestically and internationally.

Give full play to the roles of industrial investment funds and science-and-technology innovation mother funds. On the premise of compliance with laws and regulations and controllable risks, encourage financial institutions to improve diversified financial service models based on e-commerce companies’ financing needs. Use comprehensive means such as loans and equity to provide end-to-end, whole-lifecycle, diversified “relay” financial services for innovation in e-commerce business model.

Encourage the development of data labeling industries, build a batch of high-quality datasets in the trade and circulation sector, and select representative “data elements ×” innovative empowerment cases in the e-commerce field. Improve and enhance the cross-border data flow mechanisms, and continuously optimize the safety management of data leaving the country and personal information protection. Promote the integration and sharing of cross-border e-commerce data resources among relevant departments. Guided by the principle of “making it happen to handle one matter efficiently,” strengthen departmental coordination and data sharing. Improve e-commerce statistics, monitoring, and evaluation systems. Support e-commerce companies in accelerating the integrated application of diversified data, and develop products and provide services in compliance with laws and regulations.

Promote cross-border e-commerce. Promote high-quality development of the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, and organize special campaigns in those zones such as brand cultivation, rule and standard building, and sending platforms and sellers overseas. Develop models such as “market procurement + cross-border e-commerce” and “China-Europe freight trains + cross-border e-commerce” to enhance transport guarantee capabilities including maritime, air, rail, and multimodal transport. Strongly support overseas warehouses for cross-border e-commerce, improve overseas smart logistics platforms, innovate the development of digital trade, and support e-commerce companies in expanding exports of high-quality digital services. Encourage e-commerce companies to build direct procurement bases overseas, expand imports of high-quality, distinctive products, and create a “direct express lane” for e-commerce in bringing global good finds into the China market.

Formulate overseas-going guidelines for e-commerce companies. Support eligible localities in building cross-border e-commerce compliance overseas-going service platforms based on overseas comprehensive service systems, and encourage e-commerce companies to register trademarks overseas, apply for patents, and establish their own trademark brands, improving their compliance level. Encourage overseas-going e-commerce enterprises to enhance local operational capabilities, cultivate localized talent, empower local small and medium-sized enterprises, fulfill social responsibilities, compete fairly and in an orderly manner, and achieve mutual benefit and win-win outcomes. Strengthen risk monitoring and early warning for overseas operations, guide enterprises to improve their risk response capabilities, actively carry out external negotiations and engagements, and safeguard enterprises’ lawful overseas interests and rights.

Editors: Tactics Heng

Layout: Wang Lululu

Proofread by: Li Lingfeng