By Xinyi Li, EDITOR

China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone has achieved 60.6% of the total import and export trade of Chongqing with only 1‰ of the city’s land area, a source of the Chongqing Customs said to iChongqing on the two years anniversary of the establishment of  China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone.

On April 1st, 2018, Chongqing FTZ was established, covering an area of 119.98 square kilometers including three major areas of Chongqing Liangjiang New Area, Chongqing Xiyong Micro-electronics Industrial Park, and the Guoyuan Port, which formally became the new experimental field for reform and opening-up in Chongqing. Over the past two years, Chongqing Customs District People's Republic of China has made continuous efforts to simplify service procedures and optimize the business environment, which has boosted the confidence of enterprises in sustainable investment and development. 

In the past two years, China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone has achieved 60.6% of the total import and export trade

According to Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce on April 1, from April  2017 to February 2019, there have been 23,439 newly registered businesses, including 449 ones with the registered capital of USD 2.667 billion.

In the first two months of 2019, China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone still maintained rapid development, having introduced 110 projects, with the total amount of contracts (agreements) signed exceeded RMB 17.5 billion.

In 2019, China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone had introduced 110 projects

In 2018, the Guoyuan Port added the tax rebate function to the port of departure in January; Chongqing Jiangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone (Phase I) passed the national acceptance in April; Chongqing Xiyong Comprehensive Bonded Zone (Phase II) passed the national acceptance, and the Guoyuan Bonded Logistics Center (Type B) was approved in September; the State Council approved the establishment of Chongqing Fuling Comprehensive Bonded Zone in October. In March 2019, the port to import drugs and biological products for the first time was approved. Moreover, in the process of accelerating the construction of an exemplary inland city for opening-up, various “platforms” keep emerging.

Under the support of the General Administration of Customs, Free Trade Zone takes the lead in commencing the trial operation of the “Customs-Railway Clearance” Program between China and Kazakhstan, achieving the normal shipping of China Railway Express (Chongqing), and the normal operation of the train of the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC). Additionally, the first ILSTC train and the first China Railway Express (Chongqing) train have departed from Guoyuan Port, and the Golden Waterway of the Yangtze River and the ILSTC have interconnected with each other, making goods from Europe, Southeast Asia, and even around the world converge in Chongqing.

China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone takes the lead in commencing the trial operation of the “Customs-Railway Clearance” Program

In the past two years, Chongqing Customs has continuously carried out independent innovation and daringly taken the lead in a series of pilot projects such as the “selective imposition of tariffs on domestic sales”, the “qualification for general VAT taxpayer”, and the “manufacturing consignment” in the special supervision areas of the customs, bringing new opportunities for industrial transformation, upgrading and agglomeration development.

In addition to the support of the development of the manufacturing industry, China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone has also fostered a number of new business forms, including the “aircraft finance lease”, the “bonded maintenance”, the “bonded culture”, and “cross-border e-commerce”.

China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone has also fostered a number of new business forms

Up to now, 8 financial leasing aircraft have successfully landed in Chongqing, and the first batch of bonded aviation materials has also entered the free trade zone in March 2019, which is expected to save hundreds of thousands of yuan in cost for aviation enterprises this year. Furthermore, cross-border e-commerce in Chongqing has also shown a trend of substantial growth in the past two years. In 2018, there were 21.03 million customs clearance orders, increasing by 64.68% year on year, and the value of goods reached RMB 4.73 billion, with a year-on-year increase of 45.99%. Both the number of orders and value of goods ranked fifth in China.

In 2018, the import and export value of the free trade zone totaled RMB 314.99 billion, with an increase of 25.5% compared with 2017 (the same below), accounting for 60.3% of the total value of the city’s foreign trade in 2018. In the first two months of 2019, the total value of imports and exports in the free trade zone reached RMB 50.89 billion, increasing by 29.3% year on year, and the growth rate was 11.9% higher than that in the same period.

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