At the 2024 Global Digital Trade Conference held in Wuhan, Hubei province, Wei Jianguo, China’s former vice-minister of commerce, called for China to accelerate its efforts to lead global digital trade. He emphasized the importance of further opening up the economy, enhancing innovation capabilities, and strengthening international cooperation to capture a larger share of the growing digital trade market.
Wei noted that China’s current share of digital trade in the international market is relatively low and urged the country to align itself with high-level international economic and trade agreements, particularly the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA). By adopting the trade provisions for digital products and services from regions like Europe, the United States, Japan, and South Korea, China could drive institutional reforms and establish a unified national digital trade market.
“We must introduce provisions for liberalizing trade in digital products and services and accelerate the opening-up of rules, regulations, management, and standards,” said Wei. He highlighted that expanding China’s digital trade market share would not only activate the domestic consumer market but also improve the development quality of the services industry.
Wei also stressed the importance of innovation in digital products and services, urging China to launch more public digital trade offerings to enhance the country’s presence in global markets. He pointed out that China has a prime opportunity to strengthen international cooperation in the digital economy, with the potential to significantly impact the global digital trade landscape.
According to Wei, China should actively participate in formulating international digital trade regulations and join initiatives like DEPA to solidify its role in the global digital economy. He added that the Digital Silk Road initiative could be further expanded through digital trade, providing small and medium-sized Chinese enterprises with direct access to international markets while attracting foreign products to China’s large consumer base.
China’s digital trade has already shown substantial growth. In 2020, it reached 4 trillion yuan ($552.4 billion), accounting for 38.6% of the country’s GDP, with a 9.3% year-on-year growth. By 2025, the digital economy is expected to reach 60 trillion yuan, making up more than 50% of GDP.
In the first half of 2024, cross-border e-commerce alone reached 1.2 trillion yuan, growing by 10.5%, outpacing the overall growth rate of China’s foreign trade. From 2018 to 2023, China’s cross-border e-commerce imports and exports grew by 1.2 times, underscoring the rapid expansion of its digital trade sector.
Wei concluded that China’s digital trade will continue to grow rapidly over the next five years, playing a crucial role in the country’s digital economy and contributing to the fourth industrial revolution.