Datong city in North China's Shanxi province got the green light to become one of 46 cities to build cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones by the State Council on May 6, according to local officials. 

Its recognition in the field followed Shanxi provincial capital Taiyuan city which was approved in 2019.

The newly China (Datong) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone now has a number of formal steps to take.

According to requirements of the State Council, it should replicate and build on the experience and mature practices of the previously recognized cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones. It should also advance the industrial upgrading, carry out brand building and guide comprehensive development of cross-border e-commerce, as well as stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment. 

In recent years, Datong has followed the trend in globalization to take the development of cross-border e-commerce as a vital path to increase the stability and quality of the city's foreign trade, and explore new paths for the transformation and upgrading of local foreign trade companies and e-commerce businesses.

Officials said the approval for establishing the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone was of great value to local foreign trade growth and the city's further opening up to overseas markets.