OSell, one of China's major cross-border e-commerce platforms, has helped local governments across 21 provinces and autonomous regions purchase materials for epidemic prevention and control in overseas markets to fight the novel coronavirus.

Since the epidemic broke out, the Chongqing-headquartered company relied on its expertise in cross-border procurement to support China's actions in containing the COVID-19 epidemic. It launched a public welfare program to help 100 Chinese cities gather supplies to fight the outbreak in late January.

The company received over 3,800 purchase demands in various goods categories from 102 local governments across China, with total volume reaching 220 million pieces or sets.

To date, the group has purchased 39.87 million sets or pieces of medical goods and protective materials such as including facial masks, disinfectant, protective gloves, goggles, medicine and medical equipment for these local governments, involving 52.24 million yuan in procurement.

Among these goods, 523 batches have been delivered to related government departments, greatly alleviating shortages of protective material in a number of Chinese cities.

"Because many local governments are unfamiliar with foreign trade and cross-border e-commerce procurement services, we have deployed more staff and resources to collect market information and coach these government branches on ways of seeking manufacturers and retailers abroad," said Feng Jianfeng, chairman of OSell.

In addition to overcoming issues such as time differences, he noted the company has to send between 260 and 300 messages to local governments about sourcing, prices, delivery periods and custom clearance procedures on a daily basis.

During this campaign, OSell has contacted and made deals with over 2,000 medical material manufacturers and distributors in 53 countries, in particular economies related to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Its overseas branches in Poland, Russia, Indonesia and Brazil have also contacted local pharmaceutical companies directly to secure orders and ship medical goods urgently needed back home.

To boost efficiency, the General Administration of Customs has opened special channels at all clearance sites across the country to fast-track clearance services for imported supplies related to epidemic prevention.

Imported medicines and medical devices can be picked up on arrival to ensure there is no delay in clearance.