Dongxing, a county-level city bordering Vietnam in South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, made the top 10 for the first time on a list of 100 counties that lead in e-commerce across China, as ranked by the Ali Research Institute, a think tank for e-business giant Alibaba, on Tuesday.

The counties were evaluated and scored using various data, including e-commerce sale turnover, total online transactions and active users, entrepreneurship activity, and e-commerce service.

The first list of its kind was issued in 2013, when the city came in 26th place and surged to seventh place five years later.

The number of e-commerce enterprises has increased from 1,905 in 2015 to 2,573 now and over 10,000 people in the area have worked in this industry. The e-commerce turnover has exceeded 2.6 billion yuan in the first three quarters of this year.

Such progress is owed much to the work the local government has done to promote e-commerce and combine it with its booming border trade since 2015.

A nearly 5,000-square-meter public service center for e-commerce was established in 2016 with government support. The city's association of e-commerce, e-business incubators, talent training center, office space and exhibition halls can all be found in the complex building to serve e-commerce companies, particularly the start-ups.

Preferential policies also are provided here, such as low office rent, subsidies for utility bills and training programs.