(Yicai) Aug. 22 -- The Amazon program that helps businesses go live on the US e-commerce giant’s international marketplaces has launched a new initiative in Central China to help more than 1,000 factories and brand owners from four provinces speed up their overseas expansion over the next three years.

The Central China Industrial Belt Accelerator Program, launched yesterday by Amazon Global Selling, aims to help businesses build a more resilient global presence by enhancing their market awareness, product competitiveness, operational efficiency, and brand power, according to Yang Jun, vice president of Amazon China.

The global industrial products market will likely exceed USD470 billion by 2028, offering significant growth opportunities for businesses in Central China's industrial clusters, Yang said.

Yang highlighted the growing effect of industrial clusters, increasingly supportive government policies on cross-border e-commerce, and the widespread adoption of cutting-edge technologies, such as generative artificial intelligence, as key to the growth of the global industrial products market.

The number of active sellers from Hubei, Hunan, Henan, and Jiangxi -- the four provinces covered by the new initiative -- by double digits on Amazon's global sites over the 12 months ended June 30, Yang pointed out.

Yang is also Asia-Pacific head of business development and regional management for AGS, a program that enables merchants to list and sell products on Amazon’s marketplaces in the Americas, the Asia-Pacific, Europe, and the Middle East to reach millions of new customers in more than 200 countries.

Hubei attracted five transborder e-commerce platforms in the first half of this year, with imports and exports surging fourfold to CNY60 billion (USD8.4 billion) from a year ago, said Li Shangsong, secretary-general of the Wuhan Cross-Border E-Commerce Association.

It has nurtured 20 provincial-level cross-border e-commerce industrial clusters, with optoelectronics, auto parts, medical equipment, and other competitive sectors already expanding globally, Li added.

Henan's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports soared to more than CNY260 billion (USD36.4 billion) last year from CNY76 billion in 2016, averaging annual growth of over 24 percent, Liu Hui, secretary-general of the local Cross-Border E-Commerce Association, said to Yicai.

Hubei's competitive industrial clusters, including optoelectronics, auto parts, textiles, apparel, and tea, provide a robust supply of high-quality products for transborder e-commerce, according to Chen Huarong, a senior inspector at the local commerce department.

Wuhan's optoelectronics information industrial cluster has over 16,000 companies, generating revenue in excess of CNY600 billion (USD84 billion) last year, making it the world's biggest production base for optical fiber and cables. Changsha's construction machinery industrial cluster, worth around CNY210 billion (USD29.4 billion) in 2023, has fostered five of the top 50 construction machinery makers worldwide, ranking first in China and third globally.

Luoyang's steel furniture industrial cluster, with an annual output value of CNY16 billion, has 80 percent of the Chinese market. Its exports jumped 25 percent to CNY1.2 billion (USD165 million) in the six months ended June 30 from a year ago. 

Nanchang's apparel industrial cluster, the fourth-largest knitwear base in China and worth over CNY60 billion, has more than 2,000 companies producing a billion items per year, over 90 percent of which are exported overseas.

Editor: Martin Kadiev