Gongbei Customs witnesses - deep level reform promotes high-level opening up (from the front line of reform and opening up in the new era • on-site comments) If you open the bar
The Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China scientifically planned the overall plan to further deepen reform around the promotion of Chinese path to modernization, and sounded the clarion call of the times to further deepen reform and open up broad prospects for Chinese path to modernization.
Frontline observations
The the Pearl River surges and the Bay Area is turbulent. The hotbed of reform and opening up is continuing to write a new chapter of the times.
In the new national development pattern, the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area holds an important strategic position.
Located at the intersection of the "One Country, Two Systems" rule and the domestic and international dual circulation system, Gongbei Customs has the unique advantage of connecting Hong Kong and Macao by sea, land, and bridge, which is the only one in the country. It is an important window to experience the pulse of reform and opening up.
Gongbei Port connects Zhuhai and Macau. Ms. Liang, a resident of Macau, said, "Customs clearance is very convenient now. Macau residents traveling back and forth to Zhuhai for shopping and work are like visiting a door." For 11 consecutive years, this has become the largest land travel inspection port in China in terms of passenger flow.
Hengqin Port faces Macau across the river and is connected by bridges and tunnels. Cross border vehicle drivers can collect multiple information such as fingerprints, identification documents, and body temperature in one go without getting off the vehicle, which will be verified by five law enforcement units in Guangdong and Macao, resulting in a 40% increase in customs clearance efficiency.
The Bridge Port and the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge have three flying structures. Ms. Lin, a kindergarten teacher who is currently clearing customs, comes from Hong Kong and drives to mainland China every week to shop, travel, and taste delicious food. The daily average number of inbound and outbound passengers reaches 70000, and the number of vehicles reaches 13000 to 15000... Through the bridge, "two vehicles heading north" has become a new scenery.
People flow smoothly, cars flow smoothly, and goods flow smoothly. It is precisely the "precise force" of reform and innovation that allows personnel to pass customs "without feeling", but also makes regulatory services "ubiquitous".
Among them, there are reforms and innovations in regulatory models, such as piloting the "one machine dual screen, one-time inspection" joint inspection mode, or setting up a "green channel" and using "cross-border one lock"; Intelligent creation supported by technology - either building a "monitoring mobile on-site" linkage supervision system, or creating the first "Guangdong Macao joint one-stop" inspection and release system for passenger and freight vehicles in the country, cleverly solving the problem of connecting rules and mechanisms between the two places
In 2023, the total economic output of the Guangdong Hong Kong Macao Greater Bay Area will exceed 14 trillion yuan, becoming one of the regions with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality in China.
From the opening of the Hong Kong Zhuhai Macao Bridge in October 2018 to June this year, the total import and export value through the bridge port has exceeded 880 billion yuan, and the delivery and receipt of goods have achieved full coverage in mainland China, with markets involving more than 230 countries and regions.
General Secretary Xi Jinping pointed out, "We should firmly believe that China's path of reform and opening up will definitely succeed." Being on the front line of reform and opening up and experiencing the role of Guangdong's "vanguard, pioneer, and experimental zone" on site, we have a deeper understanding of General Secretary Xi Jinping's words.
Further deepen reform comprehensively, set sail with the wind in the right direction, and embark on a journey like a rainbow.
On site comments
Standing at the forefront of the times and following the historical trend, China has continuously expanded its opening-up to the outside world, developed itself, and injected new momentum into the world economy.
"Opening up is a distinctive symbol of Chinese path to modernization." The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made arrangements to improve the high-level opening up system and mechanism, and declared to the world China's firm determination to promote high-level opening up and common development of the world.
Since last year, China has successively implemented unilateral visa free policies for 15 countries including France and Germany, and added mutual visa free policies with 7 countries including Singapore and Thailand. In the first half of this year, there were 14.635 million foreign arrivals at various ports across the country, a year-on-year increase of 152.7%. Among them, 8.542 million people entered through visa free entry, a year-on-year increase of 190.1%.
In the first half of this year, the total value of China's goods trade imports and exports exceeded 21 trillion yuan for the first time, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%, and the growth rate of imports and exports accelerated quarter by quarter; Nearly 27000 foreign-funded enterprises were newly established nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%, and the investment structure continued to be optimized.
Today's China is steadily expanding institutional openness in terms of rules, regulations, management, standards, etc., continuously creating a market-oriented, rule of law, and international first-class business environment, accelerating the formation of a comprehensive opening-up pattern of linkage between land and sea, and mutual assistance between the east and the west, and promoting high-quality development with high-level opening-up.
Driven by technological innovation, openness is more confident. Shanghai Yangshan Customs has established a centralized image inspection center in the port area 40 kilometers away from Yangshan Island, implementing remote "intelligent image inspection" on the collected container X-ray machine inspection photos to minimize the time of goods staying at the port. Chongqing Customs has built a data governance platform that integrates customs clearance, logistics, processing trade, cross-border e-commerce and other data, doubling the efficiency of enterprise logistics turnover. Empowering efficiency through reform, promoting digital transformation and intelligent upgrading, the construction of smart customs, and the "Smart Customs Strong Country" action have enabled customs to be "smart in their ears and clear in their eyes", committed to solving the necessary questions of coordinated development and security.
Supported by regulatory and service innovation, openness is more effective. Gongbei Customs innovates the "Four Ones" regulatory concept, constructs a "five dimensional integrated" regulatory model of classification, risk, credit, collaboration, and intelligence, and helps Hengqin Cooperation Zone enter the fast lane of development. The Lingang New Area of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone recently launched the "Going Global" comprehensive service platform, which provides one-stop integrated and efficient services for enterprises to "go global". Shandong is actively building an international logistics channel, vigorously promoting the linkage and innovation of free trade zones, and deeply integrating into the high-quality joint construction of the "the Belt and Road". Practice has shown that it is precisely through innovative measures that dare to break through the bottlenecks of domestic and international dual circulation, continuously stimulate the endogenous driving force of high-level opening up, and inject surging momentum into high-quality development.
Guided by institutional openness, openness is more advanced. The "Special Management Measures for Cross border Service Trade (Negative List)" (2024 edition) has been released, establishing for the first time a negative list management system for cross-border service trade nationwide. Focusing on institutional opening-up, we will promote high-level financial opening-up to the outside world, improve the efficiency and capacity of China's financial resource allocation, enhance international competitiveness and rule influence. Beijing is deepening the construction of a comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding the opening up of the national service industry, actively benchmarking against the World Bank's new business environment assessment system, and further enhancing the "Beijing Service" brand. As a higher level of openness, the steady expansion of institutional openness not only helps to build a new system of higher-level open economy, but also becomes an effective institutional path for China to participate in global economic governance.
General Secretary Xi Jinping emphasized that "the door to China's opening-up will only open wider and will never close." Optimizing the layout of regional opening-up, coordinating the construction of pilot free trade zones, building high-quality Hainan Free Trade Port, hosting the China International Import Expo, China International Fair for Trade in Services, China International Fair for Consumer Goods, and China International Import Expo... China's opening-up to the outside world presents distinct characteristics of comprehensive, multi-level, and wide-ranging deepening.
Openness is the inevitable path to development and progress. Adhering to the basic national policy of opening up to the outside world and promoting reform through opening up, China, with its high-level opening up to the outside world, will surely gain advantages, initiative, and future, constantly bringing new impetus and opportunities to the world with its own new development.
(Reporters Chen Jiaxing, Gui Conglu, Hu Jian, He Linping)
People's Daily (August 2, 2024, Issue 01)