Capacity expansion, quality improvement and further efforts in the comprehensive bonded zone

Last year, the import and export value of the comprehensive bonded zone accounted for 16% of the national total——

The comprehensive bonded zone is an important carrier of China's opening-up to the outside world, playing an important role in developing foreign trade, promoting regional coordinated development, and promoting industrial upgrading. Recently, the "Several Measures to Promote Capacity Expansion and Quality Improvement of Comprehensive Bonded Zones" (hereinafter referred to as the "Measures") were officially released, aiming to further enhance the development level of comprehensive bonded zones and promote high-quality development. The General Administration of Customs stated that it will work with relevant departments to accelerate the research and development of supporting system documents, and promote the implementation and effectiveness of various reform measures.

Introduce 24 new reform measures

Fast warehousing, consolidation and distribution, loading and shipping... In spring, the Qianhai Comprehensive Bonded Zone is bustling with activity. The latest statistics from Shenzhen Customs show that in the first quarter of this year, the total import and export value of Qianhai Comprehensive Bonded Zone reached 142.83 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 47.9%. The import and export scale ranked first in the national comprehensive bonded zone for the first time, injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of emerging industries in Shenzhen.

At a press conference held by the General Administration of Customs on April 27th, Pan Cheng, Director of the Development Department of Free Trade Zones and Special Regions, introduced that as of now, there are 168 comprehensive bonded zones distributed in 31 provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the central government in China. By 2025, the national comprehensive bonded zones will achieve an import and export value of 7.2 trillion yuan, accounting for 16% of the country's total foreign trade imports and exports during the same period, effectively promoting the development of an open economy.

The "Measures" introduced this time are based on the bonded functions and policy integration advantages of the comprehensive bonded zone, actively connecting with international high standard economic and trade rules, and proposing 24 reform measures from four aspects: firstly, focusing on promoting the deep integration of the industrial form of the comprehensive bonded zone from traditional processing and logistics to diversified and high-end production and services, and enhancing the development level of new formats and models. The second is to focus on promoting the transformation of the functional role of comprehensive bonded zones from traditional foreign trade orientation to highlighting national strategic needs, and to enhance the resilience and security level of industrial and supply chains. The third is to focus on promoting the transformation of the development model of comprehensive bonded zones from the traditional "two ends outside" to serving the domestic and international dual circulation, and to enhance the level of integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. The fourth is to focus on promoting the transformation of the supervision mode of the comprehensive bonded zone from traditional fence management to digitalization and collaboration, and to enhance the efficiency of intelligent supervision and collaborative governance.

According to the introduction, relevant measures include exploring the implementation of negative list management for bonded maintenance products in the comprehensive bonded zone, actively expanding the scope of bonded remanufactured products in the "two ends outside" of the comprehensive bonded zone, and supporting the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade of enterprises in the zone.

Promote the rapid development of related industries

Doing a good job in industrial development is an essential part of promoting the expansion and quality improvement of comprehensive bonded zones.

For example, bonded maintenance is an important lever to promote the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries and enhance the development level of industrial and supply chains. By 2025, enterprises within the national comprehensive bonded zones will achieve a maintenance import and export value of 375.73 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 3.2%, "said Pan Cheng.

Pan Cheng introduced that the "Measures" focus on the demands of enterprises and mainly assist the development of bonded maintenance from three aspects:

One is to expand the scope. Explore the implementation of negative list management for bonded maintenance products, further expand the scope of bonded maintenance products, and meet the development needs of enterprises. The second is to broaden the flow direction. Allow bonded repair products to continue production and processing within the zone before leaving the country for export, gradually promote the conversion of bonded repair products to domestic sales, further expand the flow of repaired products, extend the industrial chain, and enhance the value chain. The third is to relax restrictions. Export products that are processed and manufactured domestically are allowed to enter the comprehensive bonded zone from overseas for repair before being transported out of the country, without being restricted by the repair product catalog and the prohibited import of old mechanical and electrical products catalog.

In terms of strengthening the coordinated development of biopharmaceutical research, the Measures have proposed many support measures. Due to the high upfront investment costs of existing laboratories and the integration of research and development with manufacturing, enterprises are unable to relocate their research and development processes to the comprehensive bonded zone alone, while also hoping to share the benefits of bonded research and development within the zone. Zhang Zheng, Deputy Director of the Free Trade Zone and Special Zone Development Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that if enterprises cannot enter, they will let policies go out. The Measures propose to pilot the granting of comprehensive bonded zone customs registration codes to eligible biopharmaceutical research and development enterprises outside the zone, so that these enterprises can also enjoy the bonded research and development policies of enterprises within the zone.

Regarding the expectations of some enterprises in the comprehensive bonded zone for "remote entrusted supervision" in their financing leasing business, Qi Ming, Deputy Director of the Enterprise Management and Inspection Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that relevant departments will expand the scope of financing leasing goods entrusted for supervision in different places, from three types of equipment such as aircraft, ships, and marine engineering structures to all major technical equipment and their spare parts that cannot actually enter the zone. At the same time, enterprises are allowed to complete production, delivery and other work in a bonded state throughout the entire process according to their actual business layout, promoting the rapid development of related industries.

Continuously improving regulatory efficiency

From various policy measures, the implementation of the Measures is expected to provide strong support for enhancing regulatory efficiency and unleashing development vitality in the comprehensive bonded zone.

In terms of supporting the coordinated development of comprehensive bonded zones and ports, the Measures summarize and extract the achievements and experiences of various regions, support the establishment of aviation pre cargo stations in comprehensive bonded zones that meet the conditions, and build joint operation and supporting service facilities for China Europe freight train assembly centers and international road transportation assembly centers, constructing a development pattern of "channels+hubs+industries".

In terms of ensuring the supply of national mineral resources reserves, the Measures allow enterprises within the comprehensive bonded zone to carry out physical mixing businesses such as iron ore through bonded logistics. Taking iron ore as an example, domestic steel companies will mix imported iron ore according to production demand, adjust the proportion of iron, silicon, phosphorus and other elements to achieve the optimal ratio for steelmaking. By relying on the bonded mixing policy, production enterprises can effectively reduce loading and unloading and transportation costs, obtain ore products that better meet demand, save time for mixing and blending in the factory, and improve production efficiency, "said Qi Ming.

At the same time, in the construction process of the smart comprehensive bonded zone, the customs also focused on the characteristics of enterprises in the zone and promoted the pilot testing of some application scenarios. For enterprises in the comprehensive bonded zone that meet the conditions, explore and implement the supervision modes of "Internet plus+audit", "self inventory+self tax payment", and realize the smooth interaction of data between the comprehensive bonded zone and ports by means of informatization, so that "more data run, less enterprises run", and effectively reduce the customs clearance and logistics costs of enterprises. Du Hongwei, Deputy Director of the Comprehensive Business Department of the General Administration of Customs, said that the customs will further accelerate the expansion and application of various scenarios in the smart comprehensive bonded zone in accordance with the deployment requirements of the Measures, strengthen the linkage with local governments for smart supervision, and continuously improve the regulatory efficiency of the comprehensive bonded zone.