China has recently approved some new integrated bonded areas in an effort to stabilise foreign trade.
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Since May this year, a total of 16 integrated bonded areas had been intensively approved by the authorities, according to Xinhua-run Shanghai Securities News on Thursday, after sorting out information released by the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
“As a special customs supervision area with the highest opening level, most preferential policies, the most complete functions and the most simplified procedures in China, the integrated bonded area is of important significance to the country’s efforts to stabilise foreign investment and foreign trade this year.
‘’For example, Ningbo, a costal city in east China’s Zhejiang Province, is one of the top five cities in China in terms of the exports.
“Ningbo Meishan bonded area, Ningbo Export Processing Zone (NEPZ), and Cixi Export Processing Zone (CEPZ) have recently been approved as Meishan integrated bonded area, Beilungang integrated bonded area and Qianwan integrated bonded area,” the report says.
Deputy director Ningbo Customs, Sun Xiangyang, during an online interview held by the GAC on Wednesday, said they would take the opportunity of the transformation and upgrading of the special customs supervision areas into the integrated bonded areas to give full play to the role of the integrated bonded areas in coordinating the international and domestic markets, actively deepen the improvement of processes and systems, and support development of the e-commerce companies.
He said in some regions, the bonded logistics parks have been upgraded to become integrated bonded areas.
For instance, Guangzhou Bonded Logistics Park was integrated and optimised into Guangzhou Huangpu integrated bonded area; Xiamen Xiangyu Bonded Logistics Park was upgraded to the first integrated bonded area in Xiamen, a city in southeast China’s Fujian Province.
Xiangyang, said, in addition to the integrated bonded areas recently approved on China’s eastern coast, some integrated bonded areas in central and western regions, such as Luoyang, Jinggangshan and Guanzhong, had also been approved recently.
According to customs statistics, the import and export value of special customs areas, including the integrated bonded areas, amount to 1.18 trillion yuan, bucking the decline trend and representing an increase of 2.1 per cent in the first quarter.