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Blockchain-powered Cross-border Trade Pilot Claims Breakthrough

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Blockchain China

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper

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Tim Alper is a British journalist and features writer who has worked at Cryptonews.com since 2018. He has written for media outlets such as the BBC, the Guardian, and Chosun Ilbo. He has also worked...

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Last updated:

June 25, 2023

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A Chinese pilot zone specializing in free trade and blockchain technology claims to be enjoying blockchain-powered cross-border trade success – while the central government is now getting serious about blockchain-powered cross-border trade, and will draw up a list of “key blockchain enterprises.”

The Quingdao section of the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone says it saw a successful international shipment of 1,300 coronavirus-fighting face masks arrive from South Korea as part of a cross-border deal conducted on an e-commerce platform on June 3.

Per media outlet People.cn, a number of Chinese and South Korean companies took part in the process, which was supervised of city and provincial customs officials – marking a blockchain first for the country. The pilot zone operators claimed that the technology is now ready for adoption, and would enable “full traceability for cross-border e-commerce goods.”

The operators claimed that the blockchain platform they used for the shipment would help ensure the quality of imports and exports – an issue that has blighted e-commerce industries, particularly during the coronavirus pandemic.

E-commerce has boomed in China in recent years, and the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone, officially launched in August 2019 and covering a total 120sqkm, has been earmarked as a “digital economy” growth zone. It is made up of three sections, namely Qingdao, Jinan and Yantai.

Meanwhile, the central government is also ramping up its blockchain-powered cross-border trade rhetoric, following a number of successful province-level pilots, conducted with state-owned banks and customs officials.

Per state media outlet Xinhua, Beijing will formulate a list of what it terms “key blockchain enterprises” – companies that it believes should receive central government backing in order to ramp up cross-border trade and making use of blockchain solutions.

The media outlet says experts and Beijing are in agreement that current cross-border payment systems are high in cost and low in efficiency, while they also feel that blockchain technology “can significantly increase the speed of cross-border transfers.”