China's western economic backwardness, from the objective conditions, to a large extent, is due to the remote inland, backward transportation and communications, lack of market information caused by the lofty mountains and mountains far away and blocked the western economy and the eastern market and even the international market contact exchanges, closed the western business managers' vision and thinking. Western development, first of all, to realize the great openness of the West, close the East and the West of the links and exchanges, so that more western enterprises into the eastern market tide to open up market space, looking for market opportunities, and promote business management, marketing system changes, only the western enterprises live, strong, the western economy there is hope that the development of the West in order to achieve its original purpose. In the face of the constraints of natural conditions, western enterprises how to get out of the mountains, into the market tide, has become a fundamental issue of development. And e-commerce can be a good solution to this problem.
1 Definition of e-commerce
In fact, today there is no more comprehensive, authoritative, can be accepted by most people's definition of e-commerce. Various organizations, governments, companies, academic groups ...... all define e-commerce based on their own understanding and needs. Some of them are more systematic and comprehensive:
The Canadian E-Commerce Association gives a stricter definition of e-commerce: e-commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services and the transfer of funds through digital communications, which also includes inter- and intra-company use of electronic mail (E-mail), Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), file transfer, fax, videoconferencing, and remote computer networking to achieve the full range of functions (e.g., marketing, financial settlements, sales, and business negotiations).
The United Nations Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) in the report on e-commerce on electronic commerce (EC) definition: e-commerce is the occurrence of the open network contains the enterprise between (businessto business), business and consumers between (business to consumer) business transactions.
The U.S. government, in its "Global E-Commerce Outline", pointed out in general terms that e-commerce is a variety of business activities carried out through the Internet, including advertising, trading, payment, services and other activities, global e-commerce will involve countries around the world.
The Global Information Infrastructure Commission (GHC) draft report of the Working Committee on Electronic Commerce defines e-commerce as follows: e-commerce is the use of electronic communications as a means of economic activity, through which people can advertise, purchase and settle for products and services with economic value. Such transactions are conducted in a manner that is independent of geographic location, financial resources or ownership of retail channels, and public and private enterprises, corporations, governmental organizations, social groups of all kinds, citizens in general and entrepreneurs are free to participate in a wide range of economic activities, including agriculture, forestry, fisheries, industry, and private and governmental services. E-commerce enables products to be traded worldwide and provides consumers with a wide variety of choices.
IBM's e-business (EB, E-business) concept consists of three parts: intranet, extranet, e-commerce, which emphasizes the commercialization of applications in the network computing environment. Not only is the combination of hardware and software, not only our usual sense of emphasizing the transaction of the narrow sense of e-commerce, but the buyer, the seller, the manufacturer and its partners in the Internet (internet), intranet and extranet combined with the application.
HP introduced the concepts of e-commerce, e-business, e-consumer, and e-world. Its definition of e-commerce is: a way to complete commercial trade activities through electronic means, e-commerce allows us to electronic transactions as a means to complete the exchange of goods and services, etc., is the link between merchants and customers. It consists of two basic forms: e-commerce between merchants and e-commerce between the business community and the final consumer. Definition of E-business: A new type of business development means, through the Internet-based information structure, so that the company, suppliers, partners and customers, the use of e-business **** enjoy information. E-Business can not only effectively enhance the implementation of existing business processes, but also be able to make a rapid response to the market and other dynamic factors and timely adjustment of the current business process. More importantly, E-Business itself creates more and newer business action patterns for the enterprise. Definition of E-Consumption: People use information technology for a series of activities such as entertainment, learning, work, shopping and so on. Make the family's entertainment more and more from the traditional TV to the Internet change.
In short, we can say: from a macro point of view, e-commerce is a computer network and another revolution, aimed at establishing a new economic order through electronic means, it is not only related to electronic technology and business transactions itself. And involves such as finance, taxation, education and other aspects of society; from a micro point of view, e-commerce refers to a variety of commercial activities with the ability of the entity (production enterprises, trading enterprises, financial institutions, government agencies, individual consumers, etc.) to use the network and advanced digital media technology to carry out various commercial trade activities, here to emphasize two points. First, the activities should have a commercial background. -It is networking and digitalization.
2 China's western development of e-commerce in the main problems
China's western development of e-commerce problems compared with the east, there are the same places, such as legal issues, security issues and so on. But there are also special places, highlighted in the following:
(1) telecommunications infrastructure lagging behind, the number of people on the Internet is extremely insufficient, the concept of backwardness, the lack of credit, the IT talent shortage. the shortage of IT talent is another major constraint on the development of e-commerce in the west. The main body of the development of e-commerce in the west should be the enterprise. Whether it is the creation of IT enterprises, or traditional enterprises in the online e-commerce, need a large number of IT personnel.
(2) the logistics system is not sound. Quality, fast logistics system is one of the keys to success or failure of e-commerce. Logistics system includes distribution, transportation, warehousing, packaging and so on.
3 Countermeasures for the development of e-commerce in the west
The development of e-commerce is a complex social project. For the legal issues of e-commerce, it requires the central government and local governments*** to work together to solve. For security issues, international cooperation is needed. Even the development of e-commerce in a certain region is not only the matter of the two parties to the transaction, it is more important to be inseparable from the environment created by the government for its development, and the support of industry and commerce, finance and taxation, banking, customs and other departments. It is also inseparable from the perfect Internet and well-connected modern transportation network. So the development of e-commerce in the west, should be aimed at the existing problems from the overall consideration.
(1) Government guidance
First, the government should provide preferential policies for the development of e-commerce. The strength and competitiveness of most enterprises in the western part of China are relatively weak, and their development of e-commerce is even more inseparable from the government. Local governments in the west should formulate preferential policies in favor of e-commerce development according to national laws, policies and the actual situation in the western region, and maintain the stability of the policies for a period of time. Secondly, the government should guide and urge the reform of financial industry and telecommunication industry, break the monopoly of the industry, accelerate the development of electronic credit service and reduce the telecommunication tariff standard, so as to create a fair competition environment. It should make full use of the opportunity of moderately opening up the financial and telecommunication markets after China's accession to the WTO to attract foreign financial institutions and telecommunication companies to enter the western market and promote the development of electronic credit services and telecommunication services. Third, the government should educate and guide the people to emancipate their minds and update their concepts through effective means and methods, and popularize the basic knowledge of e-commerce through extensive publicity and training.
(2) Vigorously promote the construction of infrastructure
The popularization and wide application of the Internet is the foundation of e-commerce. Local governments in the west to seize the rare opportunity of the western development, the use of national preferential policies and funds to give priority to the development of the Internet and transportation, as soon as possible to build a broadband network, improve the speed of Internet access. The main body of e-commerce is the enterprise, so we should vigorously promote the construction of enterprise informatization and improve the local area network. Give full play to the strength of all aspects of the transportation network construction. The well-connected transportation network is not only the objective needs of economic development, but also the basic conditions of commodity distribution. No matter which way you look at it, you have to do a good job of building the transportation network.
(3) the implementation of uneven development strategy
From the existing conditions in the west, in a certain period of time, the universal development of e-commerce is not very realistic. Therefore, the uneven development strategy should be chosen. Geographically, to better conditions in large and medium-sized cities, focusing on Chengdu, Chongqing, Xi'an, Kunming and other provincial capitals with better basic conditions. At the level of e-commerce, inter-enterprise e-commerce should be the main focus, with emphasis on the development of business-to-business e-commerce and e-commerce between enterprises oriented to international trade. It is clear that the main body of developing e-commerce is the enterprise, and mainly the traditional manufacturing industry. If the virtualization of e-commerce is emphasized and the combination with traditional industries is neglected, e-commerce will be like a castle in the air. The healthy development of e-commerce should rely on traditional industries, and change the sales method of traditional industries to make it in line with the international market. In the information age, e-commerce and traditional industries complement each other and promote each other. The manufacturing industry in the west of China has a certain scale and technical level, which is the solid foundation for the development of e-commerce in the west.
(4) the introduction and training of e-commerce talent
The development of e-commerce, talent is the key. The west can be extremely lack of talent in this area, especially the senior IT talent. The solution is to introduce and train them. Some western local governments and many enterprises have realized the importance of talent, put forward to people-oriented, at the expense of high-paying introduction of talent, but the results are not very effective. The problem lies not only in the hard conditions and low treatment in the western region, the main problem is that the western region has not formed an incentive to stimulate the growth of talent and entrepreneurship environment and mechanism. There is no good talent growth, entrepreneurial environment and mechanism, not to mention the difficulty of attracting outside talent, is the region's talents have "peacock flying southeast" trend. Therefore, the western local governments and enterprises is imperative to create a favorable environment for the growth of talent and entrepreneurship and mechanisms.
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B2B obstacles in Asia-Pacific
CEOs want to realize the huge potential of B2B e-commerce in Asia-Pacific, it is necessary to take into account the face of obstacles to the establishment of a compelling example of e-commerce operations. They need to understand which barriers are preventing the creation of a business case and which are in fact undermining it, so that they can act accordingly to move forward.
The five main external barriers that are currently preventing Asian companies from moving into e-commerce are: cross-border logistical challenges; Internet penetration issues; credit concerns; inadequate communications infrastructure; and regulatory/legislative barriers. To some extent, these barriers are being addressed, at least in some markets. In Australia, for example, a group of the largest domestic banks have recognized the need for unique payment solutions in the Asia-Pacific region and have moved quickly to establish payment platforms capable of digital authentication and secure authentication, and to integrate them with existing banking processes. So while there are these significant barriers in many countries, it is reassuring that they are being addressed and can eventually be eliminated.
However, it is important to note that these barriers vary greatly from country to country. Certain characteristics are shared by developed countries*** while others are shared by underdeveloped countries***. However, even within these two broad categories, there are many variations. The timing of the adoption of e-commerce will thus be limited by the speed with which Governments and enterprises can deal with these barriers. Businesses that deal with these barriers independently or in industry consortia will find themselves in the best position to advance e-commerce within their organizations.
The Challenge of Cross-Border Logistics
Given Asia's status as a global center of manufacturing and trade, the logistics challenge may be one of the most significant of these barriers. The region's trade volume is equivalent to 40% of regional GDP (excluding Japan), while the world average is only about 20%. Asia's ability to realize e-commerce opportunities will be highly dependent on a strong distribution infrastructure for physical goods across borders.
Simply moving goods in Asia is often not a major issue; one can see Coca-Cola delivered overnight to stores via motorized tricycles within Thailand; millions of tons of goods are shipped through some of the world's most efficient ports in Hong Kong and Singapore. For Asian companies, the real challenge lies at the border, where information requirements can bring intra-regional trade to a standstill. Here, suppliers encounter a variety of different country-specific regulations that add considerable complexity to intra-regional trade. These regulations include the creation of records of importers and exporters, the completion of complex customs formalities, and the changes in property rights that are often required as a result of distribution regulations. All of this is handled in multiple languages and currencies and under multiple tax regimes. Like many companies, BCG customers in the region have repeatedly experienced annoying delays while waiting for customs clearance and goods rotting and spoiling in containers.
Only the largest companies in Asia can systematically and successfully meet these cross-border challenges. Although the total volume of trade in the region is large, much of it is realized by a relatively small number of large companies. In South Korea, for example, 88% of exports come from firms trading more than US$2 million, which represents only 18% of the total number of firms.
And, because most Asian firms have not undergone corporate reengineering, there has not been widespread adoption of outsourcing, and there are few suppliers of the third-party logistics services that emerged in the United States in the 1980s and 1990s. Most Asian companies rely primarily on internally established logistics platforms, which are usually inefficient, small and fragmented. But even these in-house platforms are beyond the reach of many smaller companies.
But new companies are emerging to deal with these cross-border logistics problems. One example is Ascent, a Singapore-based company created in 1996 to support e-commerce initiatives. Its services include traditional warehousing, transportation, import/export processing, and software-driven value-added services (including information management, inventory control, and distribution center services.) Ascent's customers are in a wide range of industries, including high-tech, designer fashion, and e-commerce.
Ascent is developing solutions that reduce logistics costs for its customers by managing the entire cross-border transaction process. As an example, Ascent helped Hewlett-Packard reduce the logistics costs of its cross-border spare parts operations by 70% by streamlining and integrating the entire logistics chain, including customs clearance and port operations.
Internet Usage Penetration
Internet penetration varies widely across countries in the region, with Australia and Hong Kong at a high of 26% and 25%, respectively; while the likes of China and India, despite steady growth, maintain low penetration rates of 1% and 0.1%, respectively. However, Asia's overall low penetration rates have led to an inescapable dilemma - buyers and sellers alike are reluctant to take the lead in investing in e-commerce. In fact, 49% of buyers and 67% of sellers in our survey cited the offline status of their business partners as the biggest barrier to moving their business online. Companies in developed markets are better prepared and will lead the adoption of e-commerce by their business partners in the region.
Credit issues
Credit issues (including payment and quality assurance) are as prominent in developed as in developing Asia. Some of the issues are foundational and are being addressed, or are about to be addressed, through appropriate legislation and more advanced systems infrastructure. For example, current interbank clearing in India requires manual processing of tangible documents (e.g. cheques), while online letters of credit are not legally recognized in South-East Asia. In all countries, even the most developed e-commerce markets, security is always a major concern, and many countries lack the technology and services to provide digital authentication or online credit verification.
Some issues, however, are more complex and rooted in long-established business practices in the region. For example, post-trade pricing systems, such as those widely used in Japan's paper, cement, and oil industries, are a unique payment behavior. Under this system, the final price paid by the wholesaler to the distributor is agreed upon after the transaction and is based on the retail price borne by the market. Obviously, a practice such as this would be difficult to implement online; industry participants would have to weigh the advantages of doing business online against the costs of abandoning the practice. The answer is likely to be determined by the groups in which those participants themselves are organized.