12 Departments to Accelerate Development of the Platform Economy via Commodity Markets

Recently, 12 departments, including the Ministry of Commerce ("MOFCOM"), have jointly issued the Guiding Opinions on Promoting the Development of the Platform Economy via Commodity Trade Markets (the "Opinions").

The Opinions state that, it is expected to strive to create a number of commodity markets with value of hundred billion in which the development of platform economy will see positive results, facilitate the integration of upstream and downstream industries and of domestic and foreign trade, and form a commodity circulation system that fits the requirements of the modern economic system, by 2020, to better serve the supply-side structural reform. To this end, the Opinions set out three tasks which are "forming the platform ecology and vitalizing the market", "improving the category-based guidance and promoting the integration of commerce and industries" and "giving play to the advantage of clusters and pushing for coordinated development". Among others, the Opinions clearly state that, commodity markets are encouraged to shift the traditional business models and explore innovations in trading models and rules on the premise that relevant laws and regulations are observed, in order to steadily push forward the development of platform economy. Furthermore, the Opinions state that, efforts will be made to support the building of international trade platforms in free trade zones in accordance with laws and regulations, to innovate forms of customs supervision, to optimize customs clearance processes and to boost cross-border trade facilitation and development.



(Source: http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/article/b/d/201902/20190202838305.shtml)

Note: The link to the Chinese official website of the document is for your reference.