A general view of Shinan district of Qingdao, Shandong province. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn.

China's General Administration of Customs officially approved Qingdao's application to launch a pilot program to develop cross-border e-commerce on Jan 27.

Deputy Mayor Liu Mingjun of Qingdao, Shandong province, said the city will begin work on a specific strategy and plan to build supporting infrastructure and platforms to develop cross-border e-commerce.

“The local government will also develop a range of governing policies and procedures to facilitate trade in accordance with guidelines made by the State Council,” Liu said in a recent interview.

According to customs statistics, Qingdao has processed 1.26 million cross-border express deliveries through its postal system last year, up 16.5 percent from the previous year.

The city's non-postal express deliveries rose 20.1 percent to 3.46 million in 2013. More than 80 percent of the deliveries resulted from cross-border e-commerce transactions.

To date, Qingdao has more than 130,000 small and medium-sized enterprises with registered capital of over 2 million yuan each. Sixty percent of the companies have begun cross-border e-commerce trade.