Productive Internet service platforms thriving in Shanghai
Shanghai eyes five major district-level clusters to foster leading productive Internet service platforms as a way to encourage digitized high-quality development.
The Pudong New Area, Baoshan and Putuo districts, as well as the Lingang Special Area and Hongqiao International Central Business District have been designated as five key regions to foster specific kinds of productive Internet service enterprises based on different industries.
The supportive measures released on Tuesday came after the set of guidelines on promoting the high-quality development of productive Internet service platforms unveiled last year.
Zhu Min, director of the Shanghai Commission of Commerce, told a press briefing on Tuesday that speeding up the development of such platforms, which play a significant role in establishing the industry chain and expand new potential for industry development, is a key task for the local government this year.
Local state-backed and private enterprises have been actively promoting new models of development for trade facilitation, technology advancement with demonstration role for counterparts.
Dozens of productive Internet service platforms in Shanghai have achieved fruitful results with continuous efforts to promote and encourage the utilization of Internet and digital infrastructure.
Among 67 key local platforms, 23 are commercial trading sites for commodities such as oil and gas and industrial products, which recorded a combined turnover of 2.63 trillion yuan (US$370 billion) in 2023, an increase of 8.8 percent over the previous year.
The remaining 44 digital service platforms, which mainly provide digital transformation and professional services, posted 74.39 billion yuan in total revenue last year, up 10.5 percent year on year.
For instance, Shanghai-headquartered Haizol, which is a one-stop sourcing solution provider, currently supports customers in 27 languages, connecting buyers from 105 countries and regions and 700,000 Chinese manufacturers.
The company said its total value of orders climbed 43 percent despite overall weak demand with swift response to new trends, while the total number of orders from Belt and Road countries surged 196 percent from 2022 and transaction jumped over 60 percent to more than 600 million yuan.
