The First Global Digital Trade Expo will be held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center on December 11-14. As the only national digital trade fair approved by the central government, the expo aims to build a platform for digital trade and boost digital economic development.

The expo, under the theme of "Digital Trade, Global Commerce," is co-sponsored by Zhejiang Province government and the Ministry of Commerce, and co-hosted by Hangzhou government, Zhejiang Commerce Bureau and the Trade Development Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce.

By virtue of its ideal location, booming digital industry and thriving private economy, Hangzhou was given the green light and got the approval for building a free trade zone, which currently has four segments – Zhoushan, Ningbo, Jinhua and Hangzhou.

The expo has been an indispensable part of the development plan for the free trade zone, as the city has been striving for years to build itself into "a hub with the strongest digital economy in China."

The expo aims to build a platform, providing participants with convenient digital services for viewing and exhibiting, operation support and management services for conferences and events.

The digital trade fair comprises of five parts, namely a conference, a venue, an exhibition, a platform and a series of experience activities.

　　The First Global Digital Trade Expo will be held at the Hangzhou International Expo Center on December 11-14. (Photo/Ti Gong)

The conference refers to the Zhijiang Digital Trade Forum, which has a main forum and 16 international and national-level sub-forums and seminars, including the Silk Road Digital Commerce Cooperation Forum–RCEP New Opportunity, the Global Livestream e-Commerce Conference and the Digital Cultural Trade Summit Forum.

The exhibition venue, Hangzhou International Expo Center, will focus on digital finance, logistics and supervision.

Covering an area of 80,000 square meters, the venue will be divided into the main national section and six sub-sections, namely brands, logistics, consumption, content, cross-border e-commerce and technology.

The main national section is one of the highlights during the event, with an area of 9,000 square meters. It will showcase developmental trends of digital trade, domestic achievements and Zhejiang's digital industry.

In the logistics section, professionals will show the latest intelligent logistics systems, technological resolution strategies, Internet of things and new energy vehicles.

Content is the core of the digital cultural industry. Therefore, organizers have carved out content section for digital tourism, films, online video games and other audiovisual content, showing the future trend in the field.

In recent years, there has been significant innovation in online digital shopping methods. During the expo, visitors can experience the newest virtual reality shopping, big data and intelligent applications, smart technology in management and intelligent health care that will be available at the consumption section.

As for the cross-border e-commerce, organizers will mainly show the development of international trade platforms and cross-border transactions, payment technology, information software, service outsourcing and marketing.

Around 800 international digital companies and leading domestic enterprises, including Amazon, Tesla, eBay, Alibaba, Tencent, Baidu, NetEase and iFlytech, have been invited to display their products at the venue. Some of the new technologies will be unveiled to the public for the first time.

　Hangzhou got the approval in 2021 for building a free trade zone in Binjiang District, as part of the Zhejiang FTZ. (Photo/Ti Gong)

The expo will also set up the Global Digital Trade Platform, providing functions like registration, service, management, marketing, communication, purchasing and business opportunity management. It will provide the whole life cycle of digital trade services, covering conferences, exhibitions and activities, to people from home and abroad.

A series of consumption and promotion activities will be held through the end of December. In an effort to cover all business forms, the activities will link online and offline shopping platforms. To underline the "digital" feature, the activities are made up of nine digital businesses, namely fashion, food, festive celebration, leisure activities, experience, cars, conference, live stream and finance.

Ireland, Beijing, Shanghai and Sichuan Province have been invited as guests of honor. Participants will search for cooperation opportunities and explore new trends and standards of the digital trade.

In the future, Hangzhou will spare no efforts to build three calling cards, namely free trade, cross-border trade and service trade.

In the aspect of free trade, Hangzhou's proportion and growth rate ranked first in Zhejiang. The city has so far already attracted 67 projects with a total investment of 30 billion yuan (US$4.30 billion). The growth rate of the biomedical, digital content and integrated circuit sectors all topped 10 percent.

As for cross-border trade, the import and export volume of cross-border e-commerce was around 84.9 billion yuan in Hangzhou by September, representing a year-on-year growth of 12.6 percent. The cross-border payment services cover about 90 percent of countries and regions, which is expected to reach 400 billion yuan in transaction volume this year.

Trade service is also a pillar of Hangzhou's digital industry. The city has five national-level trade service export bases, accounting for 62.5 percent in China. And, seven projects have been selected as "the best practical examples," which will provide models for other provinces and cities in digital services.

Editor: Ye Ke