SCIO press conference on China Customs' efforts to safeguard borders, advance Chinese modernization
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 24, 2023
Shou Xiaoli:
The last two questions.
National Business Daily:
Could you provide an update on the current status of the development of China's special customs supervision zones? What are the difficulties and pain points in addressing the imbalances of developing these zones? What achievements have been made so far? Thank you.
Yu Jianhua:
Special supervision zones represent a crucial responsibility for customs supervision. As our nation continues to open up, an increasing number of these zones have been established, each with unique circumstances, and customs supervision pressure remains high. I will invite Mr. Sun Yuning, who oversees this work, to answer the questions.
Sun Yuning:
Thank you for your questions. With China's reform and opening-up policies, special customs zones emerged and after more than three decades of development, they have become an important platform and carrier for opening up to the outside world. Last year, the total import and export value of these special zones reached 8.4 trillion yuan, accounting for 20% of China's total foreign trade value. These zones, which account for less than 0.005% of the country's territorial area, contributed one-fifth of the country's total foreign trade.
To adapt to the development needs of foreign trade in different periods, China has established six kinds of special zones: bonded zones, export processing zones, bonded logistics parks, bonded port zones, comprehensive bonded zones, and cross-border industrial zones. Following the requirements of scientific and coordinated development, we are actively implementing the arrangements and requirements of the State Council and promoting the transformation and upgrading of various types of special zones into comprehensive bonded zones. Currently, there are 167 special zones in the country, of which 156, or 93.4% of the total, are comprehensive bonded zones, covering 31 provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions.
In the new era, the development of special zones has shown three main characteristics. First, the scale of the zones continues to expand. Last year, the total import and export value of special zones doubled from 2012, and their proportion of foreign trade increased from 15.7% to 20%. Second, the industrial structure continues to be optimized. Bonded R&D, bonded maintenance, "Bonded Plus," and other industries are developing, and emerging business forms such as financial leasing and cross-border e-commerce are booming, showing a diversified development trend. In 2022, the total import and export value of bonded maintenance reached 198.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 32.7%. Third, the zones' development is more coordinated. There is an evident trend that the zones leverage the core role of leading enterprises to drive the clustered development of upstream and downstream enterprises. In provinces and municipalities such as Sichuan, Chongqing, Henan, and Shaanxi, the proportion of the total import and export value of special zones exceeds 50% or even 60% of the local foreign trade import and export total value.
You mentioned that there are still imbalances in developing special zones. The development of special zones in the eastern region of China is better than those in the central and western regions. Uneven development is also a problem for some provinces where multiple special zones were set up. Also, some special zones face issues of insufficient development, such as reliance on a single industry, prominent homogenization phenomena, inadequate industrial supporting facilities, and unclear competitive advantages.
Regarding these issues, we will focus on the following three aspects. First, we will proactively contribute to the "dual circulation" development paradigm. We will accelerate our efforts to introduce reform measures for the high-quality development of comprehensive bonded zones in the new era, proactively join the unified domestic market, and promote the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. Second, we will proactively support transforming and upgrading certain special areas. We will scale up support for the innovative development of the "Bonded Plus" business form. We will also foster industrial clusters such as those involving research and development in bonded zones, help make breakthroughs in core technologies in key areas, and contribute our part to achieving sci-tech self-reliance. Third, we will proactively promote the construction of smart comprehensive bonded zones. Taking deepening reform in comprehensive bonded zones as a focal point, we will develop new models for customs supervision, strengthen the enabling role of science and technology, and keep improving the business environment and boosting enterprises' sense of gain. Thank you.
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