It is easy to see from this Canton Fair that emerging markets have become a new opportunity for “Cantonese goods” to go overseas, and cross-border payment, as a key infrastructure of the foreign trade chain, is also moving from “backend guarantee” to “frontend value”.
According to relevant statistics from the General Administration of Customs, emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America have become the core engine of foreign trade export growth.
According to data released by the cross-border payment platform XTransfer, in the first quarter of this year, my country’s foreign trade companies accounted for 73% of overseas collections in emerging markets in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and the collection volume increased by 45% year-on-year.
Among them, the amount of payments to Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia increased by 115%, 97%, and 18% respectively.
However, the construction of financial infrastructure in emerging markets lags behind, the cross-border payment system is imperfect, and foreign exchange is scarce.
How to balance efficiency and security in cross-border payment collection has become a major challenge for enterprises to explore emerging markets.
At the current Canton Fair, Mr. Li, the head of a small and micro foreign trade company in Shenzhen engaged in the export of industrial machinery, told reporters that in the past, exports were mainly to Europe and the United States. Last year, he began to focus on the African market. The infrastructure dividends in African countries have allowed him to usher in an “explosive” growth in orders. However, due to local exchange controls and other reasons, collection of payments is often slow and cumbersome, and the accounts often cannot be received for weeks.
Later, after opening XTransfer’s local collection accounts in Nigeria, Ghana, South Africa and other places, buyers can pay directly in local currencies such as Nigerian Naira, Ghanaian Cedi, and South African Rand, and the payment can be received in a few minutes. They can also directly settle and withdraw cash in RMB, and the efficiency of capital turnover has improved dramatically.
A reporter from Nanfang Daily learned that in the face of the difficulties encountered in “going overseas” in emerging markets, cross-border payment platforms have become key partners for many Guangdong sellers when exploring emerging markets.
“After orders are fragmented, payment collections also become fragmented, with different platforms and different currencies, so reconciliation is a big project.” Fang Hanshu, general manager of Dongguan Aiyizhen Clothing Co., Ltd., said that small orders, high frequency, and quick purchases have become the mainstream. Customers from different countries pay in different currencies. Exchange rate fluctuations, timeliness of payment, and cumbersome reconciliations have all begun to take up more and more of the company’s energy.
After choosing a cross-border payment platform, everything goes smoothly.
One account coordinates the funds of multiple platforms and stores, doubling the reconciliation efficiency and making the capital turnover much faster than before. Enterprises can respond to orders faster and avoid risks.
Shi Wenyi, Vice President of Ant International and CEO of Wanlihui, said that the current core demands of enterprises going overseas have been upgraded from “whether the money can be returned safely” to a comprehensive demand for compliance, localized operation capabilities and efficient allocation of global funds. In particular, small, medium and micro enterprises are in urgent need of full-link support.
As emerging markets play an increasingly important role in the overseas expansion of “Cantonese goods”, the “digital intelligence” development of cross-border payments is of vital significance to promoting “Cantonese goods travel all over the world”.
It can not only solve the payment collection problems faced by enterprises in emerging markets, but also improve the operational efficiency and competitiveness of enterprises, helping “Guanghuo” to better go global.
