China’s SME Trade with RCEP Businesses Jump with Exporters Diversifying to Emerging Markets
Chinese SME B2B exporters are selling goods to importers in more countries to diversify revenue sources and develop broader opportunities, according to data for Q1 2023 released by WorldFirst, a leading cross-border digital payments and financial services platform in China and across Asia. WorldFirst, a subsidiary of Ant Group, serves a growing number of Chinese SME B2B exporters across many markets. The number of these export markets doubled year-on-year in Q1 2023, with some exporters selling to as many as 42 overseas markets. Total trade volume of Chinese SME exporters on the WorldFirst platform grew by 220% year-on-year in Q1 2023, and 70% of the exporters were able to secure orders for two consecutive quarters.
Critically, as B2B businesses grow on WorldFirst’s platform, trading with other RCEP (Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership) counterparts, including the ASEAN countries, Australia, New Zealand, Japan and South Korea, rose significantly, with the fastest growing markets being the Philippines, Laos and New Zealand. Through their World Account, WorldFirst customers can open up to 14 local currency accounts online in minutes, enabling them to receive cross-border payments and manage funds. These include B2B traders and SMES working with 100+ global marketplaces, such as Amazon and AliExpress, all in one convenient online portal.
“SMEs in China and across Asia are adapting to new economic challenges and opportunities with remarkable agility and resilience. As they expand into new, complex markets, traders demand more reliable, hassle-free and flexible digital financial services. WorldFirst offers a one-stop solution in our World Account feature to meet SMEs’ foreign exchange, collection, payment and more complex fund management needs,” said Clara Shi, Head of WorldFirst and Vice President of Ant Group.
The World Trade Organization estimated the volume of imports into Asia and Africa to grow 2.6% and 5.6% respectively in 2023 despite overall global trade outlook remaining mixed. Chinese exporters are accelerating their foray into emerging markets, building on the double-digit growth last year in Chinese exports to emerging markets across ASEAN, Africa and Latin America.
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