Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, October 8th: "Reference News" recently published an article ""Central Asia's cross-border e-commerce is a blue ocean market"-Horgos, a century-old port, is a "new driving force" for cross-border e-commerce." The full text is as follows:
Horgos, known as the "Millennium Station, Centennial Port", is located at the mouth of the Ili River Valley in Xinjiang, bordering Kazakhstan to the west. It has been an important channel for trade between the East and the West since ancient times. In recent years, the rise of cross-border e-commerce in Horgos has not only improved the port level of this border city and added new momentum to foreign trade, but also accelerated the introduction of more high-quality Chinese products to the world.
Cross-border e-commerce develops rapidly
As a key node in the joint construction of the "Belt and Road" initiative, although Horgos has only been established as a city for 12 years, relying on the multiple superimposed advantages of location, port, and policy, it is becoming a new frontier for China's opening to the west.
Walking in this young border city, you can feel the openness and international atmosphere. It has one of the busiest land ports in the country, and a China-Europe (Central Asia) train whizzes past the Horgos Railway Port almost every hour.
In the cross-border e-commerce operation area of the Horgos Comprehensive Bonded Zone, busy loading and unloading workers load domestic appliances, clothing, shoes and hats, daily necessities and other goods into trucks in an orderly manner and send them to Central Asia, Russia and other regions.
At present, the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center has more than 2,000 merchants, bringing together specialty merchants and national pavilions from more than ten countries including Armenia, Bulgaria, France, and Belarus. It has gathered nearly 10,000 kinds of specialty products from Central Asia and Europe, providing a platform for Chinese and foreign customers to purchase global goods.
"After on-site inspections at multiple ports, we finally chose to take root in Horgos." Zhu Yongsong, head of Horgos Maozhao Clothing Sales Co., Ltd., comes from Changshu, Jiangsu Province. He has been deeply involved in the clothing industry and cross-border e-commerce for many years and has mature industry experience. This year, he expanded his business territory to Horgos.
In his view, the domestic e-commerce market is becoming increasingly saturated, and cross-border e-commerce in Central Asia is a blue ocean market with huge development potential. Horgos has a superior location, favorable policies and efficient customs clearance, making it the best choice for the layout of cross-border trade in Central Asia.
In just a few years, the cross-border e-commerce industry in Horgos has developed rapidly. In November 2022, Ili Kazakh Autonomous Prefecture was approved as a national-level cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone. Horgos seized the opportunity and built a cross-border e-commerce industrial park, a dedicated container yard, a distribution center, etc. to high standards, paving the way for cross-border e-commerce companies to settle in.
In November 2023, the China (Xinjiang) Free Trade Pilot Zone was unveiled. Relying on the advantages of the "six-in-one" comprehensive hub of roads, railways, pipelines, aviation, optical cables, and mail, the Horgos area's cross-border logistics has accelerated and reduced costs, trade volume has steadily increased, and the development of new business formats has achieved outstanding results. According to data from the Horgos Municipal Commerce Bureau, there are 45 cross-border e-commerce companies in the city, and the cross-border e-commerce trade volume will reach 30.97 billion yuan in 2025, a year-on-year increase of 288.9%. In the first seven months of this year, cross-border e-commerce trade volume reached 18.411 billion yuan.
Foreign anchors inspire new vitality
The foreign anchor team of the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center is an important participant and contributor to the prosperous development of local cross-border e-commerce.
In the cross-border e-commerce incubation center, there are a wide variety of products on the shelves. Kazakhstani anchor Valery Bolotov is sorting out trendy products such as neck massagers, AI translation headsets, and smart wearable devices in preparation for the live broadcast.
Bolotov once ran a physical store in Almaty, Kazakhstan, specializing in local honey, fresh produce and other products. He observed that the online shopping habits of Central Asian people are becoming increasingly mature. Chinese products are of high quality and rich in categories, and can be delivered quickly across borders within 24 hours. Some platforms also offer free shipping with full purchases and various promotions, which are very attractive to Central Asian customers.
Keenly seizing business opportunities, he decided to settle in Horgos, relying on the accumulation of Kazakhstan’s customer base and the influence of overseas social accounts to delve into the new cross-border live broadcast track. Since the launch, the number of likes and fans on his account has steadily increased, and his business scope has expanded from Kazakhstan to Russia and Uzbekistan.
Many young people from Central Asia are optimistic about the development prospects of cross-border e-commerce and have come to Horgos to find jobs and start businesses. Jamalov Abdulzakir, a 29-year-old Kazakh youth, has been associated with China very early. His relatives and friends have been doing business in China for a long time, and he himself has come to China to study.
"China is developing rapidly and has many entrepreneurial opportunities." Abdul Zakir said in fluent Chinese. He said that Chinese products are cost-effective and come in a wide range of categories. Foreign anchors use Kazakh and Russian to explain products on the spot and answer audience questions in real time, which has brought them closer to the Chinese market and increased the order rate. Today, Abdul Zakir serves as the person in charge of overseas business in a cross-border e-commerce service company. He is also responsible for live streaming, product promotion, and domestic and foreign business docking, and frequently travels between China and Kazakhstan.
The new model of cross-border live broadcast by foreign anchors can effectively expand the overseas channels for domestic products, increase the overseas popularity and market share of Chinese products, and create a good situation of mutual benefit and win-win.
Tang Yanlin, a merchant at Yiwu International Trade City in Horgos, said that the store regularly hires Kazakhstani anchors to live broadcast, and the results are remarkable. The customer structure has expanded from single retail to bulk purchasing. Many Uzbek merchants use the live broadcast room to connect with merchants, select sources of goods, and negotiate cooperation projects with larger orders.
Wang Lijuan, director of the Management Office of the China-Kazakhstan Horgos International Border Cooperation Center, said that the cooperation center has built a cross-border e-commerce incubation center through cultivation and gathered dozens of live broadcast teams. At present, there are more than 300 foreign anchors and more than 100 Chinese anchors resident on a regular basis. The number of fans of overseas accounts continues to expand. The new cross-border live broadcast format has injected strong momentum into the transformation and upgrading of traditional foreign trade.
“The income is ten times what it is in Kazakhstan”
High-quality industrial supporting facilities are a solid support for the continued growth of cross-border e-commerce. Currently, Horgos has opened a dedicated SD-WAN cross-border live broadcast line to ensure the smooth operation of cross-border live broadcasts with high network stability. At the same time, the cooperation center continues to optimize the supporting services for foreign anchors’ entry, residence, and employment to enhance their happiness in life and work.
Kazakhstani anchor Alten Magozina runs a clothing business with her Chinese partners. She broadcasts live for an average of 9 hours a day and sells more than 300 pieces a day. “The income here is ten times that in Kazakhstan,” she said frankly. Horgos has many employment opportunities and room for development. She plans to send her children to school in Horgos so that they can learn Chinese well from elementary school and cultivate reserves for future exchanges between China and Kazakhstan.
Xinjiang Fulun Cross-border E-commerce Service Co., Ltd.'s business covers all of Central Asia, and has deployed more than 600 self-pickup points and overseas warehouses in Kazakhstan alone. Zhang Chenxi, the company's deputy general manager, introduced that the company has innovatively created a full-chain model of "product selection center + live broadcast incubation + green customs clearance + front-loaded overseas warehouse", which not only helps domestic brands go overseas, but also accurately matches overseas demand. In her view, Horgos Port has advantages in platform, logistics, supply, and talent. The entry of foreign anchors has further made up for the shortcomings in market matching, and the cross-border e-commerce format has become more complete.
Zhu Hongjian, deputy director of the Horgos Municipal Bureau of Commerce, said that relying on multiple overlapping advantages, Horgos cross-border e-commerce has achieved rapid expansion from initial disruption to scale in recent years. This year, we will delve deeply into core industries such as cross-border e-commerce, digital trade, and bonded logistics, continue to consolidate the existing scale, and adapt to the development trend.
Chen Bing, a professor at the School of Economics and Management of Xinjiang University and deputy director of the Xinjiang Digital Economy Research Institute, said that cross-border e-commerce has become a new engine for foreign trade innovation and development. Xinjiang is positioned as a bridgehead for opening up to the west and is ushering in a period of golden opportunities for cross-border industrial development. In the future, Xinjiang will rely on digital technologies such as artificial intelligence to promote the upgrading of the entire cross-border e-commerce industry chain, promote Xinjiang's cross-border trade from "channel advantages" to "industrial highlands", and continue to expand the country's new pattern of opening to the west.
