What is the potential of cross-border e-commerce market in Southeast Asia?

Europe and the United States, as important overseas markets for cross-border e-commerce, have long been settled by many merchants and have become a fiercely competitive Red Sea market. Instead of fighting in a full market, it is better to open up new overseas e-commerce markets. At this time, people have goals, and the cross-border e-commerce market in Southeast Asia is still a blue ocean.

In the face of this favorable market in Southeast Asia, Tencent, Ali, Jingdong and other major e-commerce giants have settled in, which has what charm to attract them? Today I will give you a brief talk.

Belt and Road policy support

China put forward the "Belt and Road" policy in 2013. All along, there has been a solid foundation for trade cooperation with countries along the Belt and Road, and Southeast Asian countries are important partners in the "Belt and Road" initiative. After the stickiness of the Belt and Road policy and Southeast Asian countries has been strengthened, the trade field has been gradually broadened, the structure has been further optimized, and new growth points have been emerging, and Chinese import and export trade enterprises have ushered in excellent development opportunities.

Southeast Asian countries play an important role in the Belt and Road Initiative. There are 65 countries along the Belt and Road, involving 11 countries in Southeast Asia, with a combined population of about 639 million and a total GDP of 2.58 trillion US dollars. In 2016, the trade volume of cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries was 455.44 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 47.8 percent of the total trade volume of countries along the routes. In terms of exports, China's exports to Southeast Asian countries are the largest, reaching 259.16 billion US dollars, accounting for 44.1% of the total countries along the route.

The "Belt and Road" policy has promoted the in-depth trade cooperation between China and Southeast Asian countries, and has also brought huge opportunities to cross-border e-commerce enterprises stationed in the Southeast Asian market.

The signing of a free trade zone

The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) was signed after eight years and includes the 10 ASEAN members plus China, Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand. In 2020, the China-Asean Free Trade Area will be fully launched, with more than 90 percent of products subject to zero tariffs, and the average tariff of China on ASEAN will be reduced from 9.8 percent to 0.1 percent, while the average tariff of ASEAN members on China will be reduced from 12.8 percent to 0.6 percent.

In January-February 2021, the total trade value between China and ASEAN was 786.2 billion yuan (RMB), an increase of 32.9%, accounting for 14.4% of China's total foreign trade value. Among them, the export to ASEAN was 439.83 billion yuan (RMB), up by 43.2%; China imported 346.37 billion yuan (RMB) from ASEAN, up by 21.8%; The trade surplus with ASEAN was 93.46 billion yuan (RMB), an increase of 310.4%.

The cooperation between China and ASEAN countries has promoted the rapid growth of bilateral trade, expanded the scale of market investment, promoted the development of logistics, capital flow, information flow and market between countries, and more conducive to the settlement of cross-border e-commerce enterprises, which has created excellent conditions for settlement.

The advance of the Sino-US trade war

In 2018, the Sino-US trade war sounded, which is known as the largest trade war in the history of the world economy, the two sides have lasted for several years, China and the United States, as the world's largest economies, will affect many countries in this trade and economic game, and the global economy will be seriously affected. In the face of this dilemma, is there a place for overseas markets to survive? Absolutely. Southeast Asia is a safe haven in this crisis.

Southeast Asia will become the world's fifth largest economy in 2020, and ASEAN's annual GDP growth rate is expected to remain at 5% between 2016 and 2021, while Internet development in Southeast Asia is fast and wide. It can be seen that Southeast Asian countries have huge potential economic energy. Southeast Asia, with its booming economic development momentum, has therefore become a partner that both China and the United States want to woo. In this context, it is an excellent time to develop cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia.

At present, the Southeast Asian market is a blue ocean, a few years later may also become a red sea, so the most important thing is to grasp the market opportunity, 2021 Southeast Asian cross-border e-commerce is about to usher in the explosion and speed up, I believe in the near future, Southeast Asia will become a supermarket that does not lose the European and American markets.