Economy

Alibaba to Fund Startup Incubator in India

Chinas Alibaba Group is setting up a mobile e-commerce and mobile Internet startup incubator in the southern Indian city of Bangalore together with local company Globals， the Times of India reported.

In an interview with the newspaper， Globals CEO Suhas Gopinath said that Globals had reached an agreement on the cooperations terms with Alibaba at a meeting attended by the e-commerce groups chairman Jack Ma. “It becomes easier to mentor the startups and find the right set of funders if you have a focused incubator，” the Times of India quoted Gopinath as saying. The project is expected to start in May or June and last for a year. The first five startups selected will receive seed money from the incubators funders.

On March 30， Jack Ma met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. They exchanged views on building B2B e-commerce platforms that can take Indias farm goods， handicrafts and products of its small enterprises to global buyers.

Integrated Customs Clearance along Silk Road Economic Belt

Ten Chinese customs houses in nine provinces along the Silk Road Economic Belt， whose China section runs from Shandong Province in the east to Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in the northwest， instituted unified customs clearance starting May 1， according to a notice from the General Administration of Customs.

The integrated， regional system allows companies in the China section of the Economic Belt to make their declarations at customs houses where their companies are registered or where their cargos enter/leave China. Companies can choose any mode of customs clearance based on their needs.

The General Administration of Customs also established the unified clearance system on May 1 in the northeastern region， covering six customs houses in the provinces of Liaoning， Jilin， and Heilongjiang and Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region. The system had been set up in three other regions last year： Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei， the Yangtze River Economic Belt and Guangdong Province.

Chinas Spending on Online Shopping Overseas Tops US $1.5 Biln

Chinese consumers last year spent more than US $1.5 billion on online purchases overseas， according to a report by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange （SAFE）. Whats noteworthy is that in November and December – discount season in Western countries – Chinese online shoppers spent over US$200 million per month on purchases abroad. The buying spree was also fueled by discounts among online retailers in China.endprint

Cross-border e-commerce is becoming a new avenue of growth for Chinas foreign trade. An increasing number of Chinese consumers has taken to online shopping overseas as major international retailers， such as Macys， have started working with Chinas payment-service providers. SAFEs data show that Chinese payment services handled US$1.7 billion worth of foreign exchange receipts and payments for cross-border online shopping last year. Of the amount， 88.5 percent represented outbound payments.

“More and more foreign businesses are expanding their reach into the Chinese market，” said Hong Taoli， chief inspector of international business for Tenpay， a Chinese online payment platform. “So far，

Tenpays cross-border payment service has linked with some 1，000 foreign businesses， giving Chinese consumers a wider range of choices and greater convenience.”

To cope with the growing Chinese interest in online shopping globally， SAFE launched in 2013 a pilot program that allows qualified third-party payment institutions to provide centralized receipt and payment services of foreign exchange in certain Chinese cities. In January， the program was expanded to the whole country， with the business scope extended and the cap for a single transaction raised.

But SAFE officials pointed out that despite the strong dynamics in cross-border e-commerce， growth among these third-party payment service providers has been uneven， with most of the business cornered by a disproportionate few. Meanwhile， imported products clearly outperform Chinese exports. The next task for domestic payment services is to work out how to expand the export market and lure foreign consumers to Chinas online market.endprint