China has stepped up efforts to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce despite the novel coronavirus outbreak.

The China-Europe freight train for cross-border e-commerce waits to depart from Zhengzhou, capital of central China's Henan Province, March 2, 2019. The train, named "Cainiao", left Zhengzhou for Liege of Belgium on Saturday. (Xinhua/Li An)

In addition to the existing 59 integrated pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce, the country announced the establishment of 46 news ones on April 7, an extraordinary move during the epidemic which reflects the importance China attaches to the sector.

Local governments have also rolled out measures to help boost cross-border e-commerce over the past four months.

Fuzhou in southeast China’s Fujian province refined its measures to promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, stepping up support for the sector in a range of ways, from construction of industrial parks to comprehensive services.

Thanks to such efforts, all cross-border e-commerce firms in the Fuzhou Area of China (Fujian) Pilot Free Trade Zone have resumed work, according to an official at the Fuzhou Export Processing Zone under the agency, adding that these companies had completed 619,600 cross-border e-commerce orders by the end of February, up 34.8 percent year on year.

The Hohhot government in north China’s Inner Mongolia has rolled out policies to promote the development of the China (Hohhot) cross-border e-commerce integrated pilot zone, injecting cash to support cross-border e-commerce enterprises, platforms, industrial parks, and offline experience stores, among other measures.

Customs authorities in Zhengzhou, central China’s Henan province, have provided round-the-clock appointments for customs clearance procedures, paperless clearance and handling of business online for enterprises, due to the rising number of parcels each day, said He Yujie, a customs official.

According to the latest data, as of April 9, cross-border e-commerce enterprises in the Zhengzhou Xinzheng Comprehensive Bonded Zone had declared 22 million import and export orders and 2.5 billion yuan worth of goods in four months, up 75.4 percent and 99.7 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, the cross-border e-commerce integrated pilot zone in Yiwu, east China’s Zhejiang province, has helped enterprises in the sector take active measures to respond to the epidemic, said Yu Zhonghua, an official with the city’s market development committee.

Yu added that such measures include adjusting cross-border e-commerce categories, such as home fitness equipment and anti-epidemic supplies, as well as exploring emerging markets such as Southeast Asia and Russia.

Furthermore, cross-border e-commerce enterprises in east China’s Shandong province saw an import and export volume of 350 million yuan during the first two months of the year, a year-on-year increase of 50.7 percent, while their counterparts in south China’s Guangdong province grew 33.5 percent.

Data also shows that major cross-border e-commerce platforms in China such as Tmall Global, JD Global and Kaola.com also saw surging orders.