It is estimated that in the domestic market, imports via Tmall Global and NetEase Kaola -- two cross-border e-commerce platforms in Hangzhou -- account for over a half of country's total retail imports.

PingPong, China's cross-border e-commerce payment platform based in Hangzhou, announced it will deepen cooperation with Luxembourg at the Zhejiang Provincial Promotion Conference on Belt and Road Initiative in Ningbo on June 8. The two sides will work together in exporting China's cross-border e-commerce to the European Union, along with PingPong's overseas electronic payments and digital banking projects.

The financial technology startup established its Luxembourg entity, PingPong Europe, last September, making it the first Chinese fintech company to open an office in Europe.

In terms of its global logistics network, Hangzhou has launched direct cargo flights to regions such as Novosibirsk, Moscow, Belgium and New York. Cainiao Network, the logistics arm of Alibaba Group, has set up logistics stations in major Belt and Road cities and regions, including Hong Kong, Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and the city of Liege in Belgium.

An official from the China (Hangzhou) Cross-Border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Area said that centering on the development of the digital Silk Road, Hangzhou will accelerate the creation of online trading platforms. The cross-border e-commerce hub in East China aims to foster more than 3 million micro and medium-sized enterprises serving the global industrial chain by 2022.