(A) the benefits of e-commerce in export trade
Tong Jiawei, president of American Business Network, said at this international week's "Outstanding Chinese Forum in Silicon Valley" that the most realistic and beneficial thing for domestic SMEs to do e-commerce is export trade.
In many supermarkets in the United States, domestic products abound, but their prices are 5 to 10 times higher than those in China, because this is the result of layer-by-layer transfer. And e-commerce can avoid these links.
At present, there are three Internet models. One is content mode, such as Yahoo, Sohu, Sina, etc. , in the form of media, with news information as the main content, and can also provide entertainment and chat places. The income source of such websites is to increase the access rate and obtain online advertisements, which belongs to the "eyeball economy". It should be said that such websites in China are 3-4 years behind the United States. Second, the community model has begun to appear abroad, such as websites about "shoes" and "watches" to meet the special needs of netizens. There is no such website in China at present; The third is the integration model. It is a model of e-commerce, and this website is a comprehensive platform to provide third-party services for buyers and sellers. It enables buyers and sellers to communicate and negotiate online and provides a set of one-stop services for possible trade contracts.
It is believed that the integrated mode is the most effective in the foreign trade of domestic products, because buyers-foreign merchants surf the Internet, then sellers-domestic enterprises can rely on such e-commerce websites to do business in real time and realize a win-win situation for enterprises and e-commerce websites. However, if e-commerce is based on domestic trade, according to Internet-related surveys, students, not entrepreneurs and enterprises, are the people who surf the Internet the most.
(2) To explore new international markets, paperless trade needs to be developed.
There are many ways to open up new international markets, but Internet trade is a kind of international trade mode that appeared in 1990s because of its low cost, rapid development and wide coverage. In the era of knowledge economy, it is far from enough for enterprises to operate by traditional means. Global companies believe that using the Internet to open up new international markets is the lowest cost and the most efficient way to operate. Facing the booming Internet trade, China foreign trade and economic cooperation enterprises are seizing the opportunity, formulating countermeasures and actively participating. At present, many enterprises have established websites on the Internet to obtain market information and introduce their products. But this is not enough. We must also design the environment and mode of Internet trade from a strategic perspective, adjust the management mode and information communication mode of enterprises, combine Internet trade with the existing business scale of enterprises, and create a new business management mode for enterprises. First, make use of the influence of Internet trade on international production, develop international trade in favor of digital products, promote the rapid development of tertiary industries such as finance, insurance, telecommunications, film and television, music, information consultation, program design, engineering development and tourism services, organize production according to orders, and manage zero inventory. Second, make use of the influence of Internet trade on international consumption, understand the demand of the international market in time, enter the international market as quickly as possible, collect the feedback from the market on products extensively, and adjust the product structure as soon as possible. Third, Internet trade has been widely used in developed countries, while developing countries are still at a disadvantage in e-commerce transactions. Although China's information network industry has made great progress in recent years, it still lags behind the developed countries. Therefore, foreign trade and economic cooperation enterprises should catch up and strive to change the current situation of uneven distribution of benefits between developed and developing countries in Internet trade. For many domestic foreign trade enterprises, especially private enterprises with a population of nearly 1 10,000, Internet trade is the only way for enterprises to explore new international markets.
As China is facing various regional trade networks corresponding to the multi-polarization pattern of the world economy, many countries, as China's trading partners, began to take orders in edi mode in the early 1990s. For example, the customs of the United States and most countries in the European Union announced that they would postpone the processing of non-edi declaration requests or no longer choose to be trading partners. It can be seen that no edi in the future is just like no telephone. Without edi, there is no order. In order to speed up the development of China's national foreign trade informatization and e-commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation established the International Trade edi Service Center on February 20 1996, and officially renamed it "China International E-Commerce Center" on May 20 1997, which is responsible for the construction of "China International E-Commerce Network". Ccec network of China Commodity Exchange Center, the first super-large e-commerce software system in China, which was jointly developed by ibm and ChinaSoft Cyber Company, was officially opened on June 28th, 1997, which entered the substantive operation stage and opened a new chapter in the development of e-commerce in China. To sum up, e-commerce is the inevitable product of scientific and technological development and economic globalization. Because of its appearance, the traditional business model and business theory will undergo great changes. E-commerce will create huge benefits and opportunities, combine the spatial form, time form and virtual form of the market, and integrate logistics, cash flow and information flow into an open virtuous circle, so that operators can play their best role in the market and get the maximum benefits. E-commerce will create huge benefits and opportunities and bring more prosperous economy.
(C) Countermeasures to meet the challenges
For a country's trade development, e-commerce is both an opportunity and a challenge. Whether it is an opportunity or a challenge, it has become an irreversible trend for e-commerce to replace traditional trade methods. As a developing country, only by developing e-commerce rapidly can China take the initiative in the trade competition in the 2 1 century and win the opportunity to stand on the same starting line with developed countries.
1. Accelerate the construction of information infrastructure.
The application and development of e-commerce in a country depends on a complete information infrastructure. At present, 80% of global e-commerce sales occur in the United States, and the dominant position of the United States in the competition is based on the high investment of capital and technology and the construction of complete information infrastructure. At present, the United States has basically formed a three-dimensional high-speed communication network consisting of underground optical cables, submarine optical cables and communication satellites. The implementation and development of e-commerce in Europe are also synchronized with the construction of its information infrastructure. 65438+1In February 1994, Delauer, President of the European Commission, announced the plan to build a European information superhighway, which is expected to last for five years and cost 85 billion US dollars. While actively supporting this plan, EU countries have also stepped up their own information infrastructure construction. The construction of European information superhighway and information infrastructure in EU countries has accelerated the development of e-commerce in Europe. In Asia, some countries with relatively good e-commerce development, such as Japan, Singapore, South Korea and so on. , have a relatively complete information infrastructure as the foundation. Compared with the information superhighway with high investment and dense spider web in developed countries, China's investment in information infrastructure construction is obviously insufficient and its foundation is weak. Only a few cities in China, such as Shanghai and Tianjin, have done a good job in the construction of information facilities and formed a certain scale. From a national perspective, we are obviously behind in laying optical cables, popularizing computers and building networks. Many remote and poor areas have not yet established outlets, which has become a "blind spot" or "desert" for the construction of information superhighway. At present, the telephone penetration rate in China is less than 5%, and the home computer ownership rate is less than 1%, while these figures are 93% and 45% in the United States and 96% and 33% in Australia. "Information poverty" is regarded as the bottleneck of developing countries' economic development in the next century, and China's backwardness in information infrastructure construction may make us lose the opportunities brought by e-commerce to economic development and widen the gap with developed countries in the competition. In order to promote the development of e-commerce in China, we should speed up the construction of information infrastructure and make effective use of existing network resources.
(1) Break the industry division management system and improve resource efficiency.
As China is a developing country, the resources for developing information industry are very limited. The current industry division has caused the confusion of the overall management of the information industry, and the shortage of resources coexists with the idleness of resources brought about by a large number of redundant construction, which limits the effective utilization of resources. Taking network construction as an example, the post and telecommunications network and radio and television network, China Telecom network and China Unicom network are independent, and foreign trade, customs, taxation and other government departments have their own network systems. The utilization rate of network transmission capacity in China is only 20%~30%, which is far below the level of 70%~80% in developed countries.
(2) Reform the current charging system and reduce excessive charges.
Overcharging is an important reason that restricts the development of e-commerce in China. Take the Internet access fee as an example. At present, the domestic internet access fee is 15 times that of the United States, and the international private line is expensive. Ddn special line not only charges monthly basic fee, but also charges traffic fee. Reforming the current charging system, establishing a complete charging system that meets the market requirements and lowering the excessive charging standards are important conditions for improving the public's acceptance of e-commerce and promoting the development of e-commerce in China.
2. Strengthen research on key technologies.
Technical problems are common problems faced by all countries in developing e-commerce. Because our country's technical research strength is relatively weak, it is particularly urgent to solve this problem. Developing international trade through e-commerce involves foreign trade, banking, taxation, customs, foreign exchange, insurance and many other departments and industries. The implementation of e-commerce in China also depends on the coordination and joint efforts of the above industries, departments and units. At present, around the research of key technologies such as security technology, security management, ca certification and electronic payment, all parties should strengthen contact, cooperate closely and jointly develop, change the situation of "dying of old age" in domestic networks, realize the interconnection of domestic networks as soon as possible, establish a national foreign trade special information network, and then realize the networking with the United Nations trade information network and other international business information networks in a planned and organized way, and strive to make China's technical research strength available in a short time.
3. Raise public awareness
In the development of e-commerce, government support, encouragement and guidance are very important, which is the experience of countries that have successfully implemented e-commerce. Taking Singapore as an example, the government has played an important role in the promotion and application of edi. As early as 1990, the Singapore government invested S $2 1 10,000 to build a national trade information network tradenet, which was the first national trade network in the world and created a good paperless trade environment for Singapore. After the establishment of a number of training centers for universal training, the government has made it mandatory for all import and export commodities to declare edi since 199 1. At present, edi is widely used in customs declaration, taxation, trade, transportation, education, medical care and other aspects. In the field of trade, the application level has reached more than 95%, exceeding the level of developed countries in Europe and America. Our government's information awareness is relatively weak. Although the central government set up the Ministry of Information Industry in April 1998, local governments at all levels have insufficient understanding of the possible impact of the global information wave, lack initiative in promoting e-commerce, take ineffective measures and fail to play their due role. At present, e-commerce is still in its infancy in China, so we must give full play to the guiding and promoting role of the government.
4. Vigorously promote enterprise informatization.
Enterprises are the main body of implementing e-commerce, and their active participation is the necessary guarantee for the development of e-commerce. However, at present, Chinese enterprises are at the critical stage of reform, and the transformation from planned economy to market economy has not really been realized in the enterprise management mechanism and the thinking of leaders and employees. Without good benefits and the internal motivation to pursue development as the foundation, enterprises will inevitably have weak information awareness and lack the enthusiasm to develop e-commerce. Statistics show that among1~ 50,000 large and medium-sized state-owned enterprises, only10% has initially realized informatization or used informatization means; About 70% of enterprises have certain means of informatization or are trying to realize enterprise informatization; And 20% of enterprises only have a small number of computers, which are only used for financial and word processing work, and the degree of informatization of small and medium-sized enterprises is even lower.
5. Strengthen the research and formulation of laws and regulations.
The current international trade law is based on the traditional paper trade model, and many provisions are not applicable to the e-commerce model, which will bring many insurmountable obstacles to the development of e-commerce. In order to ensure the development of e-commerce, we should speed up the revision of existing laws and formulate and introduce new trade regulations in time around the development of e-commerce and network management, information security, financial settlement and intellectual property protection.
6. Actively participate in international cooperation and dialogue.
E-commerce has broken the boundaries between time and space and accelerated the process of global economic integration. Faced with a series of new problems brought by e-commerce, such as tariffs and taxes, uniform commercial code, and intellectual property protection, countries have strengthened dialogue and cooperation. Although our government participates in international discussions and dialogues, it is not active enough. In fact, these dialogue activities not only directly affect the formulation of new trade rules under e-commerce and determine the distribution of benefits between different countries and regions, but also strengthen the exchanges between countries and the world and improve the international compatibility of e-commerce among countries. Our government should pay enough attention to this.
7. Participation in international conventions and trading partner agreements
At present, the international trading partner agreements on e-commerce include: Draft Agreement on Trade Electronic Data Interchange System (1990) drawn up by European countries, Demonstration Transfer of International Trade Data (199 1) agreed by Finland and CMEA member countries, and British Standard Exchange Agreement (/kloc) drawn up by British edi Association. In addition, as for the liability of network information transmission errors, we can refer to the provisions of Hague Rules 1924, Visby Rules 1968, Hamburg Rules 1978 and other international transport conventions on carrier liability, and the network operators and users can sign service agreements.
conclusion
Information economy is a description of economy from the angle of information, and it is also a description of information from the angle of economy. It is an economic form change from industrial economy in industrial society to information economy in information society. This kind of economic transformation is inclusive, even covering the socio-economic transformation from economic theory, socio-economic structure, economic growth to internal management of enterprises at the turn of the century, both macro and micro.
In the process of this transformation, e-commerce is an important and crucial means and measure, because it is a bridge between information technology and traditional economy, which has a great impact on world economic development and competition pattern, which can be seen from the attitudes and plans of various countries on the development strategy of e-commerce. The development of e-commerce is not only a technical issue, but also a major issue related to national economic and social development.
E-commerce has greatly shortened the supply chain distance between manufacturers and consumers and changed the traditional market structure. As can be seen from its trading mode, e-commerce has narrowed the distance between manufacturers and customers, and enterprises can directly contact customers without traditional distributors, and customers' needs will be directly transformed into production instructions of enterprises, thus reducing intermediate links and greatly reducing the management costs of enterprises. This market model from manufacturers to consumers is a transition from indirect economy to direct economy. Driven by e-commerce, business activities have also changed due to changes in market structure. The business originally operated in traditional shopping malls has unconsciously faced the situation of shopping through the Internet.
Opportunities and challenges always seem to coexist. For China's foreign trade, e-commerce is both an unprecedented opportunity and an unprecedented challenge. China is in the period of economic system reform, the construction of market system is still in progress, and the reform of state-owned enterprises is also at a critical stage. In addition, the management system of e-commerce, legal issues, security issues and personnel quality requirements in e-commerce are all problems that Chinese enterprises, banks, information management departments, economic and trade management departments at all levels and workers engaged in relevant theoretical and methodological research must face and seriously solve.
No one will hesitate in the ever-changing international trade environment. Under the overwhelming impetus of e-commerce, both large and small enterprises and the whole foreign trade policy are facing tremendous pressure. Under the benign interaction at the beginning of China's entry into WTO, China should seize the opportunity, take e-commerce as the incision and rely on international trade to push the whole national economy to a new level and make a difference in the new world economic structure.