Chongqing - On September 14, Chongqing Municipality and Changsha, Hunan's customs authorities sealed a memorandum for deepening cross-custom collaboration. This strategic move will elevate the Yangtze River Economic Belt and contribute to the Belt and Road Initiative.

Situated along the Yangtze River, Chongqing and Hunan are pivotal hubs for international trade. Yangtze River's channels are the go-to routes for importing and exporting goods.

The customs authorities of Chongqing Municipality and Changsha, Hunan, sealed a memorandum for deepening cross-customs collaboration on September 14. (Photo/Chongqing Customs District)

With 20 specific collaboration measures, the memorandum offers a detailed blueprint for their partnership. It touches upon six fundamental areas, such as bolstering logistics channel infrastructures, ramping up business cooperation, and fostering high-quality industrial growth, among other critical focal points.

A standout feature of their collaboration is championing intelligent logistics supervision in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. It incorporates functionalities like ship operation supervision, container monitoring, electronic fences, intelligent alerts, and logistics coordination. 

Their goal is to facilitate data sharing among customs, transport companies, port administrators, and other business systems from both regions, thus refining the cargo loading process and enhancing the port's business environment.

Chongqing's Guoyuan Port is at the forefront of leveraging intelligent logistics systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. (Photo/Chongqing Customs District)

Chongqing's Guoyuan Port is at the forefront of leveraging intelligent logistics systems in the Yangtze River Economic Belt. With real-time geographical data, cargo ships can now auto-notify customs upon arrival. Moreover, the system's ability to automatically identify container details and initiate customs protocols has become a game-changer.

Zhuang Changbo, logistics director at Changan Ford Automobile Co., Ltd., highlighted the system's significance, particularly for urgent imports. He noted a 60% reduction in cargo detention times, enabling swifter transitions to production lines.

Such technological initiatives have considerably reduced the institutional costs and corporate operations, cutting down the overall logistics time for Chongqing's waterborne imports via the Yangtze River to just 13 days. This translates to a logistics efficiency surge of a third. 

As a multimodal transport-branded international trade and logistics hub, Chongqing's Guoyuan Port gathers commodities. It sends them away by rivers and seas in the east, relies on the China Railway Express to connect Asia with Europe in the west, and sees the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC) meeting the sea at Qinzhou Port in the south.