The Dream Factory of China

　　Since the State Council approved the formation of the Guangdong Free-Trade Zone at the end of last year, Shenzhen’s Shekou Customs, underpinned by the geographical advantages of Qianhai and Shekou, unveiled several new measures aimed at facilitating and freeing up trade processes.

　　Shekou customs zone’s external trade has been steadily increasing in the first five months of this year. Container throughput registered a 7.1 per cent increment over the same period last year to reach 4.312 million TEUs, while inspected cargo volume reached 36.142 million tonnes, a growth of 20.8 per cent. Taxes paid amounted to 3.22 billion Chinese yuan, an increase of 11.7 per cent.

　　Not only did external trade grow steadily, new industries like cross-border e-commerce also saw strong and steady growth. In the first five months of this year, the Qianhai Bay Bonded Port Area cleared a total of 2 million cross-border e-commerce orders, or 20 times that of the total of last year’s orders. The orders cleared thus far this year totalled to about 200 million Chinese yuan, which is five times the total of the whole of last year’s.

　　Ever since Qianhai Bay Bonded Port commenced cross-border e-commerce operations last year, the development of Qianhai’s cross-border e-commerce industry has been closely followed. There are 63 registered e-commerce companies at the moment, dealing with over 24,000 registered items that include food, beauty, baby, and washing products.

　　In order to facilitate the development of new industries, Shekou Customs has been enthusiastically embarking on business research. Shekou Customs has attempted to integrate exhibition centre with the cross-border e-commerce, in a bid to promote the establishment of direct imported goods wholesale centres in Qianhai Bay Bonded Port. Such centres allow consumers to experience the products in the store, encourage them to purchase the products online and enjoy lowered personal postal article tax. Chinese Resources Vanguard’s Ewj shop opened its first O2O outlet in Qianhai Bay’s Port Building Shipping Center that would harness the benefits afforded by Qianhai’s free trade port policies. .

　　In addition, since the creation of the free trade zone, there have been calls by companies in Shekou and Qianhai for the integration of operations of the two areas. In response, Shekou and Qianhai jointly introduced the “singular window” for international trade, where import and export operations of both areas would be processed together. This in turn streamlines resources needed for customs regulation, and also pools navigation and berthing resources needed by both areas for a more integrated set of operations for the whole port.