E-commerce boosts cross-border trade between China, Russia

In 2013, around 300 million packages containing items bought online were transported from China to Russia. This increased to more than 700 million in 2014, and is expected to hit more than 1 billion by the end of this year, Jiang said.

China's cross-border e-commerce has been developing rapidly, which will help create jobs, expand the market and inject new energy into the Chinese economy, according to a statement on the Chinese government's website earlier in March.

Online shopping revenue amounted to 9.8 trillion yuan from January to August this year, growing 24.7 percent year on year, according to Zeng Chen, an e-commerce expert at the Ministry of Commerce.

More than 80 percent of Chinese foreign-trade firms have an online-business arm.

According to China Internet Network Information Center, China had 649 million Internet users by the end of 2014, and some 557 million used cell phones to get online.

On Wednesday, the central government unveiled plans to upgrade Internet infrastructure and the logistics industry in rural areas, to encourage online spending among rural residents.

E-commerce is significant in integrating traditional and emerging industries, reducing logistics costs, encouraging entrepreneurship, creating jobs and boosting consumption, while its development will also help industrial upgrading, according to an earlier statement released after an executive meeting of the State Council.

Developing the e-commerce sector is an important part of China's "Internet Plus" action plan, put forward by Premier Li Keqiang when he delivered the 2015 Government Work Report in early March.

The action plan covers the integration of mobile Internet, cloud computing, big data and the Internet of Things with modern manufacturing, encouraging development of industrial networks and Internet banking, and helping Internet companies increase their international presence.

The China Harbin International Economic and Trade Fair started in 1990, and the China-Russia Exposition was upgraded last year to focus on bilateral cooperation between China and Russia.