RESEARCH ON COUNTERMEASURES FOR DEEPENING CROSS-BORDER E-COMMERCE BETWEEN LIAONING PROVINCE AND THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST

ABSTRACT

Liaoning Province, as the forefront and hub of China's opening-up to the north, serves as the core carrier of economic and trade cooperation with Russia. Leveraging its geographical proximity, complementary industries, and policy synergy, it has become a model in the sub-region of the Far East of Russia. Its development achievements directly respond to the country's strategic deployment of opening up to the north at a higher level. The research results indicate: 1. The construction of basic service facilities and platforms in the Russian Far East is relatively lagging behind; 2. There is insufficient regional coordination in cross-border e-commerce development; 3. Settlement risks caused by fluctuations in the ruble exchange rate; 4. Shortage of cross-border e-commerce professionals and an imperfect training system.This paper proposes countermeasures including constructing a Russia-adapted service system that meets Russian policies, culture and consumption habits while integrating cross-border trade, logistics and other links, optimizing the regional coordination layout, improving cross-border financial services, and perfecting the talent training mechanism, so as to provide theoretical support and practical references for the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce between Liaoning Province and Russia.

Keywords: Liaoning Province, Russian Far East Region, Cross-border E-commerce, Local Platform, Sub-regional Cooperation.

I. Introduction

Cross-border e-commerce, as the core carrier of the deep integration of the digital economy and the real economy, is a key engine for China to build a "dual circulation" new development pattern and expand high-level opening up to the outside world. In September 2023, the General Office of the Liaoning Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China officially issued the "Implementation Opinions of the General Office of the Liaoning Provincial People's Government on Promoting the Innovative Development of Digital Trade" (hereinafter referred to as the "Implementation Opinions"),According to the opinions by 2029, Liaoning Province plans to increase the proportion of service trade that can be digitally delivered to over 45%, It has also outlined key tasks such as the construction of a "dual-core" digital trade cluster in Shenyang and Dalian and the establishment of a digital trade service platform[1]. As an important gateway for China's opening up to the north, Liaoning's deepening of cross-border e-commerce cooperation with the Russian Far East is not only an important issue in implementing national strategic deployments and provincial development plans, but also a necessary choice for optimizing the regional foreign trade structure.

The research on cross-border e-commerce cooperation between China and Russia holds significant strategic value and practical significance at both the national and regional levels. In the context of the reshaping of global economic and trade order, the Russian Federation government's intention for a "strategic shift towards the east" has been notably pronounced. The Far East region, as the leading hub for China-Russia economic cooperation, continues to demonstrate its market potential and cooperative value. The dynamic game between the Western European camp and Russia regarding sanctions and counter-sanctions has been intensifying, significantly increasing Russia's reliance on China for bulk trade products.Yu Miaojie and others believe that the increase in the share of cross-border e-commerce in both China and Russia reflects the "strong political cooperation and strong economic cooperation" in China-Russia economic and trade relations[2, p. 9]. Li Jun argued that cross-border e-commerce strategic cooperation is an important support for maintaining the high-quality and sustainable development of bilateral trade cooperation between China and Russia, and it is necessary to leverage the digital economy to enable the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce strategic cooperation between the two countries [3, p. 10] .

This study is based on an analysis of Liaoning Province in China and the Russian Far East, focusing on the path construction of a "localization-enabled cooperative network", providing a new research perspective for the high-quality and coordinated development of local cooperation between China and Russia.

II. The Current Situation, Opportunities and Challenges of Cross-border E-commerce Development in the Russian Far East by Liaoning Province

(1) Current Development Situation

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, the cross-border e-commerce industry in Liaoning Province has demonstrated a favorable development trend characterized by "rapid expansion in scale, continuous optimization in layout, and constant innovation in models", and has become an important engine for the transformation and upgrading of the province's foreign trade.In terms of transaction volume, the cross-border e-commerce transaction amount in Liaoning Province reached 26.73 billion yuan in 2024, achieving positive growth year-on-year and accounting for approximately 3.5% of the total import and export volume. Among them, trade with Russia continued to improve. From the perspective of transaction volume, Liaoning Province in 2024[4]. Liaoning Province has multiple advantages in cross-border e-commerce cooperation with Russia. It can leverage the policy benefits and industrial foundation of the 7 cross-border e-commerce pilot zones within the region to form a dedicated layout for trade with Russia[5]. And by relying on the China-Europe Railway Express and the "land-sea combined transportation corridor", an efficient logistics network for Russia has been formed.

In terms of infrastructure interconnection and interoperability, the logistics network construction in Liaoning Province has been continuously upgraded. The number of China-Europe freight trains has long remained the highest in the northeastern region. The platform and enterprise support have been continuously strengthened. By introducing leading cross-border e-commerce platforms such as Alibaba, Cainiao, and JD, we have achieved full-mode operation. We have actively cultivated cross-border e-commerce industrial parks and other carriers, and have promoted the implementation and refinement of the "cross-border e-commerce + industrial clusters" collaborative model.

(2) Opportunity

Liaoning Province is expanding its efforts in deepening cross-border e-commerce in the Russian Far East region. With the dual core advantages of policy empowerment and geographical support, it can provide support and guarantee for the industrial chain and supply chain.

Firstly, the refinement and hierarchical improvement of the policy support system have established the institutional guarantee for industrial development. The Liaoning Provincial Government issued the "Three-Year Action Plan for Comprehensive Revitalization of Liaoning (2023-2025)" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan") in 2023. It listed cooperation with Russia in key areas as a core task, clearly stated the goal of creating a high-quality new pattern of opening up to the north, focused on promoting the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, encouraged the integration model of "cross-border e-commerce + industrial clusters", and focused on supporting the upgrading of B2B export models[6]. Secondly, the regional strategic advantages of Liaoning Province have become more comprehensive and radiative. By leveraging geographical proximity and transportation connectivity to optimize transportation routes, Liaoning Province has several open ports for international trade, including Dalian and Yingkou. Dalian Port has also opened direct shipping routes to Vladivostok port and Nakhodka Port, forming a stable shipping channel. In terms of timeliness and distance, the shipping distance from Dalian Port to Vladivostok Port is only 1,100 nautical miles (approximately 2,037 kilometers), and the direct shipping route from Dandong Port to Vladivostok Port is actively being promoted. This "port-to-port connection + channel integration" geographical advantage not only shortens the logistics time and space distance, significantly reduces transportation costs, but also provides an indispensable spatial foundation for in-depth exploration of the Russian Far East market, achieving the synergy of policies and geographical advantages.

(3) Challenges Faced

3.1 The construction of digital infrastructure and regulatory service platforms is relatively lagging behind.

The digital empowerment level of cross-border e-commerce between Liaoning Province and Russia is lagging behind that of provinces such as Heilongjiang which are in the "first echelon". The core issue lies in the fragmented functions of the comprehensive service platform and the relatively incomplete regulatory system.  The digital infrastructure investment in the cross-border e-commerce public service platforms of Liaoning Province is generally insufficient. Most of these platforms are limited to basic functions such as information query and tracking of logistics trajectories, and have not yet achieved integrated services for core businesses such as tax declaration, foreign exchange settlement, business registration, and credit evaluation. As a result, enterprises have to repeatedly operate across multiple systems, which not only reduces the efficiency of business processing but also incurs additional time and operational costs. More importantly, Liaoning Province lacks an integrated regulatory platform like the cross-border e-commerce express package integrated regulatory center in Heilongjiang Province. It has failed to achieve the "one-click declaration, one-piece customs clearance" service for the regulatory model. As a result, enterprises are forced to rely on third-party platforms to conduct business, which limits their expansion in user scale and selection of product categories, and makes it difficult for them to grasp the initiative in the Russian Far East market. This has also constrained the digital transformation process of the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce.

3.2 Insufficient Energy Levels in the Park and Imbalance in Regional Development Layout

The cross-border e-commerce parks in Liaoning Province have structural deficiencies such as being small, scattered and weak. The collaborative management mechanism and the rationality of regional layout urgently need to be improved. By the end of 2024, only 14 provincial-level key cross-border e-commerce parks have been recognized in the province, and they are mainly concentrated in cities such as Shenyang and Dalian in the Liaoning Central-South region. The agglomeration effect is weak, and there is a lack of effective linkage among the parks. Moreover, no comprehensive pilot zone has been approved in the Liaoning North-West region, resulting in a regional development gap[7]. The service capabilities of the parks are generally low, only providing basic office and storage spaces. They lack value-added services such as supply chain finance, cross-border logistics integration, and overseas warehouse connection, and have limited radiation and driving effects. This is in sharp disparity to the "five major operation areas" regulatory system scientifically planned by Heilongjiang Province.

3.3 Risk of Ruble Exchange Rate Fluctuation and Compatibility of Cross-border Settlement Services

The cross-border e-commerce between China and Russia is confronted with severe exchange rate risks and problems related to unsmooth settlement channels, mainly due to the risks of the ruble exchange rate and the insufficient financial service support capacity. The significant fluctuations of the ruble led to an increase in the price difference in the foreign exchange forward market, resulting in relatively high transaction costs, which severely restricted the risk hedging behavior of enterprises. In terms of settlement channels, due to international sanctions, most state-owned banks in Russia have been excluded from the SWIFT system, and traditional cross-border remittance channels have been blocked. Although local rural commercial banks in provinces such as Jilin and Heilongjiang have already carried out direct settlement services in rubles and RMB through special bilateral trade systems, financial institutions in Liaoning Province have not yet launched such compatible services. Since March 2024, state-owned banks have generally suspended settlement services related to Russia, resulting in a situation where some business entities in Liaoning Province are facing the predicament of "having no means of settlement".

III. Countermeasures and Suggestions for Enhancing Cross-border E-commerce Development in the Russian Far East by Liaoning Province

(1) Strengthen the foundation for the synergy between digital infrastructure and supervision, and build an adaptable service system for Russia.

The cross-border e-commerce public service platforms in the Russian Far East generally suffer from insufficient investment in digital infrastructure. Most of these platforms are limited to basic functions such as information query and tracking of logistics trajectories, and have not yet achieved integrated services for core businesses such as tax declaration, foreign exchange settlement, business registration, and credit evaluation. As a result, enterprises have to repeatedly operate across multiple systems, which not only reduces the efficiency of business processing but also adds extra time and operational costs. More critically, the trade service platforms for the Russian Far East in Liaoning Province have failed to implement the "one-click declaration, one-clear customs clearance" service for regulatory models. As a result, enterprises are forced to rely on third-party platforms to conduct business, which limits their expansion of user scale and selection of product categories, thereby hindering the digital transformation process of the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce.

(2) Optimize the layout and service level of the park, and build a regional coordinated development pattern

Firstly, the Liaoning Provincial Department of Commerce took the lead in integrating the resources of 14 provincial-level industrial parks, creating a cluster center for the Shenyang-Dalian metropolitan area and a cross-border logistics hub in Dandong, promoting the focus of hinterland cities on warehousing and customs clearance, forming a coordinated pattern of headquarters and ports, and attracting the clustering of upstream and downstream enterprises. The core park has introduced specialized services such as direct logistics lines to Russia and overseas warehouse connections, thus completing the "financing - logistics - settlement" full-chain service. The provincial government applied to the state for the establishment of additional comprehensive pilot zones in Jinzhou and Fuxin, aiming to unleash the export potential of characteristic products from the northwestern part of Liaoning Province. Secondly, a one-to-one assistance mechanism has been established between Shenyang, Dalian and the newly added comprehensive pilot zones, and trade collaboration platforms have been jointly built with bordering port cities to form a "multi-center, full-chain" pattern.

(3) Improve the financial support system and break through the dual bottlenecks of exchange rate and settlement.

Firstly, the Financial Regulatory Bureau of Liaoning Province, in collaboration with local banks, guided various business entities to use tools such as forward exchange and exchange rate insurance to hedge risks, and enabled real-time conversion between ruble and RMB, thereby reducing exchange costs. Secondly, the provincial government promoted cooperation between local financial institutions and the Russian bank VTB and the Shanghai branch, leveraging the SPFS system to achieve direct settlement in local currency. The Provincial Finance Department has once again established a special financial support fund for cross-border e-commerce with Russia. Led by the provincial finance department, this initiative aims to alleviate the capital turnover pressure faced by enterprises in conducting cross-border e-commerce with Russia and enhance the attractiveness of the Liaoning market.

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