Global Times: China's digital trade channels empower BRI partners, Global South's integration into global value chains

BEIJING, Oct. 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Most products - domestic or from abroad - that you bought online would come to your home in just a few days in China. This is largely realized through e-commerce. In the bustling metropolises and remote villages alike, e-commerce has woven itself into the fabric of daily life in China.

In the wave of global cross-border e-commerce development, China's e-commerce industry has emerged as a formidable force, not only serving as a key engine driving China's domestic consumption and its foreign trade growth, but also contributing "China's solution" to the global landscape, especially to partner countries of the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Global South. This win-win cooperation empowers BRI partners to better integrate into global value chains, analysts and industry practitioners said.

Providing platforms

Among many such international events that China launched to help boost e-commerce development, one of the latest examples is the "Silk Road E-commerce Day," which was launched at the 4th Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE) in Hangzhou, East China's Zhejiang Province. The expo runs until September 29, with a dedicated Silk Road E-commerce Zone.

The zone is scheduled host activities by over 50 global e-commerce platforms, helping foreign trade enterprises worldwide expand their markets, according to the expo organizer.

Through the Silk Road E-Commerce Initiative, a new international cooperation platform for economic cooperation under BRI, China has established digital trade channels with 36 countries, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce. This particularly would help enterprises in Africa and ASEAN integrate into global value chains, industry practitioners said.

"This is our first time attending GDTE. With this large platform, we could connect Chinese businesses to global opportunities, especially to UAE and Middle East region," Sarbarupini Letchumanan, a manager at Aramex-Sinotrans Express Co, told the Global Times at GDTE.

The company is a joint venture of Dubai-based express and freight service provider Aramex and China's Sinotrans Air Transportation Development Co.

"As a major e-commerce player in the world, China is opening up doors, bringing so much possibility for enterprises worldwide," said Letchumanan.

Not only at this expo, but at many others, China has provided many platforms for enterprises to connect with businesses all over the world, Adjei Eben Kwame, a manager at Ghana Opace Group Exhibition Ltd., told the Global Times at GDTE.

"We recently attended the China International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing and then went all the way to Hangzhou. We got some potential buyers at Beijing's service expo. And we want to find some AI or smart solution suppliers in Hangzhou's expo," Kwame said.

Digital trade, as a new form of deep integration between digital technology and international trade, is demonstrating robust resilience and potential by expanding trade boundaries, innovating trade models, and empowering trade entities, positioning it as a strategic choice for countries amid the profound adjustment of the global economic landscape and escalating uncertainties, Sheng Qiuping, Vice Commerce Minister, said at a press conference on September 11 for the 4th GDTE.

The cross-border e-commerce growth is exemplified by Hangzhou, the host city of the ongoing 4th GDTE. Over the past decade, Hangzhou's cross-border e-commerce sellers have ballooned from just over 200 to 65,000 - a 325-fold increase - while import-export volumes have surged 1,266 times, said Yao Gaoyuan, mayor of Hangzhou, at a press conference on September 11.

Nationally, China's digital trade has scaled dramatically. In 2024, the annual value of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports reached 2.63 trillion yuan ($369.1 billion), up 10.8 percent year-on-year, according to statistics from the General Administration of Customs.

Tech-empowered

Apart from international platforms provided by China to global foreign trade-related enterprises, the country is also offering new technologies to help increase efficiency, reduce costs and lower the threshold for entrepreneurship.

Logistics serve as a crucial part of e-commerce and exhibitors at the 4th GDTE offered their latest solutions, empowered by new technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).

The newly unveiled Smart Logistics Zone at this year's GDTE highlighted breakthroughs across the entire logistics spectrum, spanning transportation, last-mile deliveries, warehousing, and advanced data management solutions, as there are live demonstrations of dynamic transport network optimization systems, alongside cutting-edge autonomous trucks, delivery robots, and drones, the Global Times observed.

For example, smart warehouses will feature digital twin technology and automated picking systems, enhancing efficiency up to fivefold over traditional manual methods. Advanced algorithms forecast shipment volumes and streamline routing, while machine learning helps safeguard data privacy in decision making, the Global Times learned from several exhibitors.

Logistics industry giants, such as SF Express, presented cutting-edge offerings, including cloud-based supply chain platforms, AI-driven models, and eco-friendly packaging solutions.

Meanwhile, rising startups unveiled their autonomous delivery vehicles tailored for urban logistics. Domestic logistics firm Neolix brought its latest unmanned delivery vehicles to the expo, which can cut costs and improve speed by more than 30 percent, a representative from Neolix told the Global Times, adding that their unmanned delivery vehicles have been used in 15 countries.

By blending technological innovation with market-oriented strategies, the Smart Logistics Zone seeks to convert ideas into tangible business prospects for global participants.

In addition to infrastructure, financial products are also being upgraded to facilitate trade.

"We have launched several payment tools that enable foreign trade enterprises to conduct transactions in over 100 different currencies worldwide. This can particularly help small and medium-sized enterprises to conduct cross-border trade more effectively," Zheng Liangxi, Vice President of the Strategic Development Department of Ant Group, told the Global Times at GDTE.

Zheng said that the company started to expand its overseas business from BRI partnering countries. "By leveraging China's mobile payment technology, we helped local areas establish electronic payment wallets, facilitating trade, especially cross-border e-commerce."

In essence, China's digital trade corridors and upgrading, tech-empowered e-commerce facilities are bridging divides, turning emerging markets into dynamic players in the global economy and underscoring a commitment to shared prosperity, GDTE participants said.

SOURCE Global Times