Taiwan’s e-commerce firms now enjoy greater business opportunities in China after the two sides across the Taiwan Strait signed a service trade agreement in June last year, prompting a business delegation to China, a trade official said recently.
Li Rongmin (李榮民), director of the Taipei office of the China Chamber of Commerce for Import and Export of Machinery and Electronic Products (CCCME), said that the e-commerce industry will be a new point of growth for cooperation between Taiwan and China.
China’s e-commerce market is growing rapidly, while Taiwan’s businesses have high awareness of innovation, mature techniques and are experienced in management, Li said.
These factors lay a sound foundation for cross-strait cooperation in this sector, Li added.
Through cooperation, Taiwan’s small and medium-sized enterprises will be able to sell their refined products to China, while China’s e-commerce companies could further develop by using international distribution channels established by their Taiwanese counterparts, Li said.
Under the pact, Taiwanese businesses are allowed to establish e-commerce Web sites in China’s Fujian Province, in which businesses can hold a maximum 55 percent stake.
Reflecting interest by Taiwanese e-commerce companies in this sector, a delegation comprised of representatives from the Taipei Chamber of Commerce and the Taipei office of the CCCME, visited e-commerce companies in Fujian during their trip to the province between Dec. 18 and Dec. 21.
Li said he arranged the visit in the hopes that Taiwan’s companies could gain a better understanding of China’s e-commerce sector development and so the two sides could explore the possibility of collaboration.
Liao Shang-wen (廖尚文), the delegation’s leader and the president of the Taipei-based Chinese Non-store Commerce Association, said that China’s e-commerce segment has been developing rapidly because the central and local governments have launched various measures and policies to improve the environment to attract foreign enterprises to operate.
He said that given Taiwan’s smaller e-commerce market, companies in this sector should work to enter the supply chain in China’s larger market by taking advantage of its favorable policies toward Taiwan.
He said that as more people shop online, e-commerce has become the future of the retail industry.
Taiwanese businesses that enter into the Chinese market will need to highlight their particular strengths, he added.
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