Mianyang, a city in southwestern Sichuan province, plans to boost its e-commerce industry by encouraging more business startups and establishing more partnerships with industrial giants.

E-commerce is among the most promising industries in China.

According to recent statistics released by the China E-Commerce Research Center, transactions made through various e-commerce platforms amounted to 23 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion) in the country in 2016, up 25.5 percent from the previous year.

Mianyang Science and Technology Business Park is a major base for e-commerce and other internet-based high-tech companies in the city.

As a national-level technological incubation base and a national-level technological innovation and entrepreneurship base, the park has already invested more than 2 billion yuan in building a 50,000-square-meter incubation center for starting e-commerce businesses, according to the park's administrative committee.

The park has released a development plan for 2016-20, with a number of preferential policies in place to attract businesses to the local e-commerce industry.

During the 2017 China (Sichuan) E-commerce Development Summit held in Mianyang from Sept 21-23, the park's administrative committee again released 10 new preferential policies.

These aim to attract more investment in the e-commerce industry, encouraging companies to establish regional headquarters and other operations in the park.

According to the administrative committee, one of the preferential policies is that companies on the Fortune Global 500 list and the list of China's top 100 enterprises - which build headquarters, operating centers, accounting centers and research institutions in the park - can get up to 2 million yuan as an incentive.

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The committee added that leading teams for business startups can be awarded up to 20 million yuan for financing.

The committee has made e-commerce and Internet Plus top priorities, to help to develop a modern service industry in Mianyang.

In three years, the park has attracted about 240 e-commerce companies. The sales volumes made through the companies' e-commerce platforms topped 30 billion yuan from January to August this year.

Su Junrong, founder of Sichuan Junhao E-commerce Co Ltd, said he chose to settle in the park because of its ideal development climate. He founded the company in November 2016 in the park.

Its sales topped 300 million yuan in the first eight months of this year, and the figure is expected to reach 400 million yuan by the end of 2017.

"What attracted me here was the solid basis and huge potential for the e-commerce industry in the park," Su said.

Milai.com is an emerging e-commerce company in the park focusing on computer and communications products, as well as consumer electronics. It is managed by a group of young entrepreneurs.

It realized online transactions of nearly 800 million yuan in the three years since its establishment. And in the first eight months of this year, sales reached 200 million yuan.

Goushihui.com, a local fresh food e-commerce platform, featuring online sales and cold-chain delivery, registered about 160,000 members just in one year.

The number of its orders topped 3,000 daily and it is working on building a larger online-to-offline e-commerce platform with nationwide coverage.

Mianyang Science and Technology Business Park is also working with leading research institutions to offer better services for the e-commerce companies.

In May, Tsinghua University and the park co-founded a research and promotion center for cross-border e-commerce.

The park has also cooperated with e-commerce giant Alibaba to build a location-based service center for cross-border e-commerce.

The United Kingdom's Cambridge University and the European Union have helped to set up incubators in the park to help attract businesses from overseas.

In addition to the e-commerce companies, other related technology and services companies from home and abroad have also made investments in Mianyang Science and Technology Business Park, offering stronger support for the e-commerce industry.

Inspur, China's major big data service provider, established a cloud computing center in the park and United State's computer giant IBM built its first Chinese big data analysis center there too.

China's first gigabyte optical-fiber access network was also built in the park, to better meet local companies' demands in communications.

Now a complete industrial chain has been formed in Mianyang Science and Technology Business Park, ranging from information, technology and financial services, as well as logistics and staff training, according to local officials.

"By 2020, the park will have become a first-level e-commerce industrial park in Sichuan and in China with, strong innovative capacity, brand influence and regional competitiveness," a park official said.

Local officials predicted that the park will be home to about 500 e-commerce companies in 2020, with annual on-line transaction volumes surpassing 100 billion yuan.

dongjidong@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/30/2017 page24)