The signing ceremony between China (Hangzhou) Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone and AliExpress is held in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province on Aug 21. [Photo/zjol.com.cn]

The China (Hangzhou) Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone, the first of its kind in China, signed a cooperation agreement with AliExpress on Aug 21 to jointly develop a cross-border e-commerce development program.

Aiming to expand the presence of Hangzhou brands in overseas markets, the program, dubbed "giant project", will select 300 outstanding Hangzhou-based retailers and manufacturers to join AliExpress's "good Chinese sellers" project, which will provide support to the enterprises in expanding abroad.

The pilot zone will provide companies with cross-border e-commerce and talent cultivation training sessions as well as opportunities for industry exchange.

Wang Mingqiang, general manager of AliExpress, said that the company will help a group of outstanding innovative businesses to go abroad and contribute to the development of cross-border e-commerce in Hangzhou.

By June 2019, the number of Hangzhou merchants who have opened online stores on AliExpress hit 4,935, up 37.19 percent year-on-year.

Officials said that the program also includes an innovation and entrepreneurship competition, which is open to foreign students from countries involved in the Belt and Road Initiative who are willing to engage in cross-border e-commerce in China, as well as overseas Chinese returnees who have graduated within the past five years.

In the first half of this year, Hangzhou registered 42.87 billion yuan ($60.58 million) in cross-border e-commerce foreign trade, a year-on-year increase of 23.7 percent. Exports rose 19.7 percent to 29.41 billion yuan.

Founded in Hangzhou, AliExpress is China's largest retail export e-commerce platform, with over 150 million overseas buyers in more than 220 countries and regions around the world.