Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily (Reporters Li Hua, Liu Xiang, Hei Hongwei) news: Tea, characteristic agricultural products, quaint furniture... On September 23, 2023, walking into the Chinese Commodity Uzbekistan Overseas Warehouse Product Exhibition Hall, it feels like being in a supermarket full of Chinese goods. Hundreds of high-quality Chinese products displayed on the shelves lure consumers to buy.

"This is just one of our pavilions, there are many more goods in the warehouse!" Tursunali Kuziev, a consultant at Xinjiang Asia-Europe International Materials Trading Center, the operator of the overseas warehouse of Chinese commodities in Uzbekistan, said proudly, "The goods are sent here before there is an order!"

Photo taken on September 23, 2023 shows the reporting team of "Road of Prosperity – Belt and Road Reporting Project" organized by the Propaganda Department of the Party Committee of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, visits an overseas warehouse of Chinese commodities in Uzbekistan and interviews Tursunali Kuziev. (Photo by Shiliuyun-Xinjiang Daily/ Liu Xiang)

"Overseas warehouse" refers to warehouses established by export enterprises or cross-border e-commerce companies in overseas buyers' countries and regions, so that cross-border e-commerce or export companies can deliver goods directly to the customers through the overseas warehouses after the orders are placed.

"In the past, we sent the goods from China to overseas only after the customer placed an order, so the time spent on logistics was long, and the cost was also high." Zhang Hongping, chairman of Xinjiang Asia-Europe International Materials Trading Center Co., Ltd., introduced that after the opening of the overseas warehouse, they would send goods to the overseas warehouse in bulk, and then wait for customers to place their orders. In this way, the logistics time has shortened and the feedback from the customers has gotten better. Delivery has become faster, and product returns have become easier.

It has taken more than ten years for Zhang Hongping to open up channels for cross-border e-commerce, set up an "overseas warehouse", and build a bridge between Chinese commodity sellers and Uzbek consumers for fast transactions.

Zhang Hongping started her business with lubricating oil production and marketing. In order to break the bottleneck of crude oil supply, once she heard that there were relevant suppliers in Uzbekistan, she went to this foreign country alone to build raw material supply chain.

"During the time I was in Uzbekistan, I got to know the Uzbek Commodity Exchange." Zhang Hongping said, "At that time, I was attracted by this kind of operation mode, which has the features of great market potential, diverse varieties, simple transaction process, and strong timeliness, and decided to step into the field of cross-border e-commerce."

As one of the world's four largest exchanges, Uzbek Commodity Exchange was registered by the Republic of Uzbekistan to provide enterprises with a full range of commodity trading services with an internationalized trading process.

In order to do the job well, Zhang Hongping chose to just hand over the lubricating oil business to someone else, and devote herself to the Uzbek Commodity Exchange as an apprentice.

She started as an agent, learning while working. After three months, she knew all the processes of the exchange and made a request to the chairman of the exchange to build a sub-branch in China.

The chairman was moved by Zhang Hongping's sincerity, and after negotiation, she obtained the sole authorization of the Uzbek Commodity Exchange in China, and at the beginning of 2010, Xinjiang Asia-Europe International Materials Trading Center was established and formally operated.

The platform was established, but there were not much people doing business here. For several years, the operation of the trading platform can only rely on Zhang Hongping's other businesses.

"Since I chose this career, I must not give up." Zhang Hongping determined that cross-border e-commerce should have a future.

Since the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) was proposed in 2013, cross-border e-commerce platforms became known among people.

"It is obvious that there has been a big change on policies." Zhang Hongping said that many entrepreneurs began to reach out to her to talk about the operation mode of cross-border e-commerce platforms.

Under the Belt and Road Initiative, Zhang Hongping and her team have made continuous efforts over the years to build an Asia-Europe international cross-border bulk commodity trading platform. By developing cross-border credit, cross-border logistics, cross-border settlement, supply chain finance and other service functions, the instant cross-border trading of global raw commodities spot is realized.

Zhang Hongping decided to set up an overseas warehouse according to the needs of domestic and foreign enterprises. "On one hand, we can bring domestic dominant commodities to the overseas warehouse, and promote domestic and foreign commodities online through matchmaking with the Uzbek Commodity Exchange, which will contribute to the increase of  domestic and foreign trade volume." On the other hand, she said, foreign enterprises can know about domestic products through offline showrooms in the field, which will enhance the consumer shopping experience, and accelerate trade transactions.

On December 21, 2022, the overseas warehouse of Chinese goods in Uzbekistan was officially put into operation.

"Next, we will further optimize the function of the Uzbekistan overseas warehouse." Zhang Hongping said, the first step is to enrich the variety of commodities in the showrooms, gather domestic characteristic advantageous products and products from Uzbekistan, give full play to the function of the Uzbek Commodity Exchange, and boost the import and export turnover of products of the two countries. The second step is to take Uzbekistan overseas warehouse as the distribution center and expand the trade circle to neighboring countries.

"Overseas warehouses here and in other countries and regions established by China are actively exploring the construction of information technology, intelligent development, diversified services, and localized operation, providing cross-border e-commerce sellers with services such as warehouse operation, digital marketing, and one-stop customs clearance." Tursunali Kuziev said that these excellent "cases" around him will definitely promote the development of the e-commerce industry in Uzbekistan and other places.

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