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 Qianhaiwan Free Trade 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. Currently there are 63 registered e-commerce companies, 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 the bonded goods trade and display with e-commerce, in a bid to promote the establishment of direct imported goods wholesale centres supported by the Qianhai bonded port . Such centres allow consumers to experience the products offline in person and thereby encouraging consumers to purchase them online. Chinese Resources Vanguard has made preliminary plans to open its first direct import outlet centre in Qianhai’s merchant maritime centre, harnessing the benefits provided by Qianhai’s bonded port.

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