Chinese city to sell goods online to Muslim world

Millions of made-in-China products may get parceled and reach the Muslim world by international mail, as China vows to make Yinchuan, a city in Northwest China's Ningxia Hui autonomous region , a cross-border e-commerce hub.

Great effort should be made to develop cross-border e-commerce in Yinchuan, the country's cloud computing frontline, and introduce more Chinese goods to the Arab and Muslim world via the Internet, said Xu He, deputy head of the publicity department of the Ningxia Party Committee, ahead of the Digital Silk Road Forum at the two-day 2015 China-Arab States Expo which began in Yinchuan on Thursday.

Yinchuan, the permanent site for China-Arab Expo, also plans to build an O2O platform for Arab direct distributors to sell packaged goods to Chinese customers, according to a government release in August 2014.

Since 2013, Yinchuan has launched two major cloud computing programs, with a total investment of 740 million yuan ($115.89). With an ambitious plan to install 2.1 billion servers – parts of the computer network which store or process information for the network, local officials said they are confident that the city has the facilities, infrastructure and environment needed to build a major cross-border e-commerce platform.

"Ningxia's data collecting and cloud computing platforms are an advantage for the development of e-commerce businesses in the region, including cross-border e-commerce,"said Xu.

Cross-border e-commerce in China has reaped a turnover of 3.1 trillion yuan in 2013, or 12.1 percent of the total imports and exports that year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The ministry estimated that in 2016, the total turnover will reach 6.5 trillion yuan, 16.9 percent of the total imports and exports. That means an average increase of 30 percent.