Recently, the State Council officially approved to build Yongchuan Comprehensive Free Trade Zone. Chongqing now has six comprehensive bonded zones: Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Lianglu/Cuntan Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Jiangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Fuling Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Wanzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and Yongchuan Comprehensive Bonded Zone.

Chongqing’s comprehensive bonded zone has 11 years history of development, starting from the establishment of Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone in February 2010, up to the approval of Yongchuan Comprehensive Bonded zone nowadays. “The comprehensive bonded zone has become an industry cluster in Chongqing, but also an important platform for Chongqing to become a leader of opening-up in inland China.” said the official from Chongqing Customs.

Prominent Outcome from Industry Cluster

The first half of this year has witnessed Xiyong Micro-Electronic Industrial Park yielding satisfying results: for the first six months, the park's total industrial output value exceeded 100 billion yuan with 116.65 billion yuan, representing a year-on-year increase of 17.3%. “The vast majority of our industries are dependent on the Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone.” Said an official of the park.

As the first comprehensive bonded zone in Chongqing, the industrial clustering of Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone is taking effect. Currently, Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone is the world's largest notebook production center, with an annual output of over 40 million units. In addition, the park also holds an important position in Chongqing in terms of integrated circuit and intelligent terminal manufacturing.

In comparison, the Bonded Zone of Lianglu/Cuntan is somewhat the same, but there are still differences. Based on the upgrading of “industry, consumption and services”, the Lianglu/Cuntan Comprehensive Bonded Zone focuses on the structural upgrading of manufacturing, trade and products. The laptop industry has been upgraded to an industry cluster that consists of the manufacturing of smart wearables, laptops and smartphones, with non-laptop products taking 60% of the output. Some of the enterprises in the park have increased their investment and production by more than 3 billion yuan in the past three years.

 “The two bonded zone are not only attracting the electronics and manufacturing industries but many other emerging industries as well.” Said the official of Chongqing Custom.

Working with railway stations, Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone is now providing testing and maintenance services to promote the rapid development of the import business. In 2020, 6,053 vehicles were imported through the Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone, with a total value of 2.816 billion yuan.

With its geographic advantage, the bonded zone is developing the “Bonded +” aviation industry with services including aircraft renting and maintenance. Thanks to the diverse trading advantage, the bonded zone is also promoting events and services such as car fairs, bonded products exhibitions and cross-border e-commerce.

Different Aspects Empowering Opening-up

On July 20, as the train whistles, a Land-Sea Multi-Modal train on the New Western China International Land-Sea Corridor departed from Jiangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone and headed for Qinzhou Port in Guangxi.

The New Western China International Land-Sea Corridor is a major southbound logistics corridor of Chongqing. After the custom closure and operation of the Jiangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the Jiangjin train of the New Western China International Land-Sea Corridor was launched. This year, the Jiangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone has run 145 trains, with a transport volume of more than 7,000 TEU.

 “The comprehensive bonded zone is an important platform for opening-up. Its linkage with the channel can give full play to the superimposed effect and help Chongqing to become as a leader of opening-up in inland China.” said the relevant person in charge of Jiangjin District.

The linkage has been a regular for opening-up. At present, Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone and Cuntan Comprehensive Bonded Zone are where the China-Europe Railway Express (Yuxinou) and New Western China International Land-Sea Corridor start, while Fuling Comprehensive Bonded Zone is also actively planning to be a part of the New Western China International Land-Sea Corridor.

Apart from that, the bonded zones in Chongqing are also platforms for innovation thanks to the enabling policies.

For example, in those bonded zones, the Chongqing Custom invented a regulation system that allows companies in special regulation areas to do self-reporting, self-reporting, self-reporting and self-reimbursement of taxes. Since 2020, the proportion of independent write-off of books in bonded zones has increased from 40% to 80%, and the optimized parameter setting has solved the problem of auto-transferring to manual audition for the change of business after the extension of work order books, reducing the proportion of manual audit by more than 90% and the time for exporting by more than 30%.

Under different influences, the bonded zone has become the backbone of Chongqing's export-oriented economic development. The statistic shows that Chongqing's comprehensive bonded zone has gathered 1/4 of the city's import and export enterprises, contributed nearly 70% of the city's total import and export trade, and attracted over 40% of the city's total foreign direct investment.

Adhere to Diversified Growth

Chongqing Customs officials said that given the 11 years of development of Chongqing Comprehensive Bonded Zones, many newly established comprehensive bonded zone is still in the early stages of development. In the coming years, these comprehensive bonded zones will adhere to diversified development and contribute to Chongqing's economic development and opening-up.

For example, the Fuling Comprehensive Bonded zone will be officially closed and operating by the end of December 2019. It is planned that the zone will mainly develop four major sectors: medicine and health, advanced equipment, food and oil, and electronic information, and actively promote emerging industries including cross-border e-commerce and cold chain logistics to develop a “543” industrial system.

 “The bonded zone is making good progress in general, and has introduced the bonded warehousing project of Chongqing Panhua Group, which has been closed for only 8 months, and the total value of foreign trade imports and exports has reached $737 million.” The relevant person in charge of Chongqing Customs said.

Wanzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone was formally approved in January this year and is expected to be closed for operation within the year. The comprehensive bonded zone will combine its own geographical and commercial advantages, and focuses on the development of bonded logistics, bonded warehousing, cross-border e-commerce, maintenance and testing, cultural tourism products, special agricultural products and other industries while influencing the northeast of Chongqing, the east of Sichuan, western Hubei, the south of Shaanxi, East of Qian and western Hunan, and turning the comprehensive bonded zone into a hub for industrial distribution in the Three Gorges reservoir area.

 “Yongchuan Comprehensive Bonded Zone will be developing with other comprehensive bonded areas, including Xiyong, Jiangjin, Luzhou, in different sectors.” Said Chongqing Customs officials. The comprehensive bonded zone intends to focus on building high-end CNC machine tool processing and manufacturing industry and working with companies from other sectors including intelligent equipment, automobile and motorcycle, new materials and medical equipment.

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