Thailand Opens Digital Free Trade Hub in partnership with Alibaba

Thailand has launched its first digital free trade hub in partnership with Alibaba, as the country looks to upgrade its logistics and e-commerce sectors.

The hub is a free trade area in Thailand’s Eastern Economic Corridor (EEC) designed to facilitate cross-border e-commerce between Thailand and China. The Thai government developed the hub in partnership with the Chinese technology giant as part of the latter’s Electronic World Trade Platform (eWTP), an initiative to promote international e-commerce.

If successful, the digital free trade hub will allow consumers in Thailand and China to buy products from each other’s markets more easily and quickly. The launch of the digital free trade hub is part of Thailand’s efforts to position itself as one of Southeast Asia’s key logistics centers for trade and e-commerce.

What is the digital free trade hub?

The digital free trade hub, sometimes referred to as the Smart Digital Hub, is a zone of 40,000 square meters that benefits from special rules for Thailand-China cross-border trade.

The hub is populated by bonded warehouses storing Chinese products to be sold in Thailand, as well as warehouse housing Thai products to be shipped to Chinese consumers who buy them through Alibaba’s platforms.

The hub offers both expedited customs procedures and physical proximity to expedite trade. In a bonded warehouse, a dutiable Chinese product will be stored in Thailand. Planners designed these warehouses to be fully automated.

E-commerce orders from China to be reduced from 10 days to three days

Taken together, planners say that the amount of time needed for Thai consumers to receive cross-border e-commerce orders from China will be reduced from 10 days to three days. If successful, expedited shipping will make Chinese products more appealing and more accessible to Thai consumers.

In a statement, Song Juntao, secretary general of eWTP, said that the hub marks the successful replication of China’s cross-border e-commerce model. Over the last decade, this model has grown in popularity in China as it allows consumers to rapidly receive international purchases through bonded warehouses located on Chinese soil.

From plan to reality

The digital free trade hub came into operation on December 8, 2022. It gained extra international attention following its launch when Alibaba’s founder, Jack Ma, visited the country in January 2023, making a rare public appearance.

The project initially began in 2018 when Ma signed four Memoranda of Understanding with the Thai government on trade, investment, and support for e-commerce and tourism. Alibaba and the Thai government previously signed a letter of intent in 2016 to cooperate on e-commerce.

At the time, Alibaba committed to investing 10 billion baht (US$302.8 million) to develop the hub. It was originally supposed to be fully operational by 2019, but its launch was delayed, including by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Alibaba launched the first international hub under the EWTP initiative in Malaysia in 2017 with a focus on developing a logistics hub by the Kuala Lumpur International Airport. Within China, Alibaba has also established eWTP partnerships in Hangzhou, Yiwu, Hainan, and Hong Kong.

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Thailand Opens First Digital Free Trade Hub in Partnership with Alibaba (aseanbriefing.com)

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