On December 26, 2019, one year after the Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area was approved by the State Council, it passed the national inspection and acceptance and is about to put into operation. This means that Dongguan's export-oriented economy has a new platform for development.

The Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is established at a time when the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and Shenzhen demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics are being built. At the same time, Chinese government is promoting the transformation and upgrading of the Comprehensive Bonded Area and Dongguan is undergoing a critical stage of its supply side structural reform of manufacturing industry. The Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is just established at the right time and shoulders great responsibilities.

As an important platform for Dongguan to promote policies of the Pilot Free Trade Zone and integrate into the Guangdong Free Trade Zone, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area will help promote the transformation and upgrading of Dongguan’s processing trade, further improve the level of opening up, and promote Dongguan’s integration into the “Belt and Road” initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

For Dongguan, an export-oriented city with a policy advantage, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area has great significance. After it is put into operation, Dongguan will maximize its effectiveness and set it as a benchmark for high-quality development.

Established at just the right time

Accelerate the shaping of a new opening-up pattern

Yesterday, Dongguan Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area successfully passed the national inspection and acceptance. It is the first comprehensive bonded area in Dongguan and the second national-level platform officially approved in Dongguan. Led by the General Administration of Customs, a joint inspection team composed of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Natural Resources, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Taxation Administration, the State Administration for Market Regulation, and the State Administration of Foreign Exchange conducted inspection and acceptance on Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area.

For Dongguan, an export-oriented city with a policy advantage, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area has great significance. Last October, the State Council approved the establishment of Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area, which becomes the first national-level open platform in Dongguan, and provides an important channel for Dongguan to further leverage its policy advantages.

This is a major event for Dongguan to further deepen reform and opening up, seize development opportunities, and accelerate its integration into the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

As China’s special customs supervision area with the highest level of opening up, most preferential policies, most complete functions, and the simplest procedures apart from China ’s free trade zone, the Comprehensive Bonded Area helps Dongguan further its opening up to the world and will become an important platform for Dongguan ’s promoting the Guangdong Free Trade Zone and its integration into the “Belt and Road” initiative and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is also an important channel for exploring how to build a free trade port in Dongguan.

This means that Dongguan can explore more new models, paths and systems of cooperation on economy and trade with foreign countries, and this Comprehensive Bonded Area will play an important role in connecting with new models of international trade and economic rule management, connecting with major international trade channels, and promoting free trade zone policy. This will help Dongguan build a new system for its open economy and accelerate the shaping of a new opening up pattern.

According to the State Council, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is located behind the Xidatan Business area of Dongguan Port, with a planned area of 2.237 square kilometers. It extends east to the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Coastal Expressway, south to the Jin Gang South Road, west to the Gangkou Avenue, and north to the Jin Gang Middle Road. On February 19, 2019, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area officially started its construction in two phases. The first phase covered an area of around 1.26 square kilometers, which is subjected to the jurisdiction of Huangpu Customs.

Geographically, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is located in the center of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. It is about 5 minutes’ drive from the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Coastal Expressway, Nansha Bridge, and Guangzhou-Shenzhen Rail Transit. It only takes half an hour’s drive from it to Nansha and Qianhai Free Trade Zones. Drive for an hour and you can reach the major cities in the Greater Bay Area.

Since the reform and opening up, Dongguan has manufactured its way to success and now becomes a major manufacturing city. Especially since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, Dongguan has become an innovation-driven manufacturing city through continuous transformation and upgrading. In 2018, the number of above-scale industrial enterprises in the city exceeded 10,000, ranking the first in Guangdong; the number of high-tech enterprises reached 5,798, ranking the fifth in the country and the first among prefecture-level cities in Guangdong.

In recent years, Dongguan's total volume of foreign trade has also reached a record high. Last year, Dongguan's total volume of import and export exceeded RMB 1.3 trillion, with its increase rate ranking the first among the nine cities in the Pearl River Delta, the total volume ranking the fifth in the country, and its overall foreign trade competitiveness ranking the third in the country.

Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is backed against the world-class manufacturing base in the Pearl River Delta. It is 300 meters away from the main area of Dongguan Port as the crow flies, forming complementary advantages of policies, resources, industries and functions. Neighboring cities Chang’an, Humen, and Houjie ranked eighth, ninth, and sixteenth respectively in the 2019 China Top 100 Towns, forming characteristic industrial clusters like high-end electronic information, clothing and furniture. The Binhaiwan Bay Area is a strategic platform for Dongguan to connect with the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The heartland has a solid economic foundation with a large number of Hong Kong, Macao, Taiwan and foreign-invested enterprises settling there. It has active import and export trade, and close links with the international market, which provides a solid foundation for the high-quality development of Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area and further accelerates the transformation and upgrading of Dongguan's processing trade enterprises to meet the requirements of high-quality development.

Integration of policy advantages

Accelerate the transformation and upgrading of Dongguan’s manufacturing industry

Dongguan is a leading place for reform and opening up. It is located at the core of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and is next to Shenzhen, the demonstration area of socialism with Chinese characteristics. What’s more, Dongguan is the only experimental area in Guangdong Province with the theme of innovation-driven supply-side structural reform in the manufacturing industry, with the integration of policy advantages from the building of “three areas”.

Dongguan has been longing to establish the Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area for years. The strong demand for Dongguan's industrial transformation and upgrading calls for the establishment of a comprehensive bonded area to bring new development opportunities for enterprises. After Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area passed the official inspection and acceptance, Dongguan has a new platform for the development of its export-oriented economy.

The Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area was developed on the basis of the Dongguan Bonded Logistics Center (Type B), and relied on Xidatan Business Area of Dongguan Port to apply for establishment. After the expansion, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area not only has a larger area, but also makes breakthroughs in policies such as port operations, bonded logistics, export processing, and customs clearance supervision. It has integrated the policy advantages, which will help promote the shaping of a new pattern of opening up in Dongguan.

Compared with the Bonded Logistics Center (Type B), Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area has added businesses including R&D, processing, manufacturing, bonded maintenance, funding and leasing. On the conditions that certain requirements are met, the following preferential policies will apply: the exemption of quota and license and bonded policy upon entry into the Bonded Area through the “first-line” area, duty exemption upon departure from the Bonded Area through the “first-line” area, tax refund upon entry into the Bonded Area through the “second-line” area, exemption of unlimited duration of bonded warehousing, and selective taxation of enterprises within the zone. At the same time, businesses like cross-border e-commerce bonded retail imports, bonded display transactions, domestic and overseas maintenance, funding and leasing can be developed.

Liu Jie, member of the municipal CPC Leadership Group, director of Binhaiwan Bay Area and the management committee of Dongguan port, and Secretary of Party committee of Humen Town, said in an interview that Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area, the first comprehensive bonded zone in Dongguan, can take advantage of its geographical advantages as it is next to Nansha and Qianhai Free Trade Zones, actively carry out system innovation, and well engage with Guangdong Free Trade Zone in terms of political system, industrial cooperation, financial innovation, etc., so as to strive to take the lead in promoting the Free Trade Zone policy.

At present, the Dongguan port, where Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is located, has gathered such functional departments as customs, border inspection, maritime affairs and ports. It has fully implemented the appointment system of customs clearance, initially establishing an efficient and convenient supervision service system of customs clearance. The Comprehensive Bonded Area, with its efficiency and convenience of customs clearance and innovative supervision mode, will significantly improve the efficiency of enterprises' customs clearance and reduce the time and logistics cost for enterprises. It is estimated that the logistics cost of enterprises will be reduced by about 10%.

Dongguan port is booming and has become the most-favored channel for Dongguan enterprises to carry out ocean shipping. Currently, the freight handling capacity of Dongguan Port ranks the third in Guangdong, the 11th in China and the 41st in the world. Last year, Dongguan Port added six new routes and built a barge transportation network with fixed points and schedules that covers the "9 + 2" urban agglomeration of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. Ships from Dongguan Port can reach the neighboring international ports within half an hour, thus bringing more opportunities for the city's international logistics, procurement, distribution and sales of goods, and facilitating the deep integration of Dongguan with other cities in the Greater Bay Area.

Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area enjoys a marked advantage of "integration of Free Trade Zone and port". Relying on the advanced sea, land and air transportation facilities in the adjacent areas, it can quickly connect with the whole country and the world, and form a perfect cooperative relationship with the surrounding international ports, so as to further improve the functions of Dongguan Port and achieve dislocation development with such international ports as Hong Kong Kwai Chung Port, Shenzhen Yantian Port and Guangzhou Nansha Port. In this way, it is possible to further drive the optimization and reorganization of Binhaiwan Bay Area and Dongguan Port, and better implement the mission of Binhaiwan Bay Area to lead high-quality development and integrate into the Greater Bay Area.

Liu Jie said that Dongguan government would give full play to the "integration of Free Trade Zone and Port" effect, take advantage of the resources of Dongguan Port and the policy, function and regulatory innovation of the special supervision zone of the customs, extend the function from traditional bonded warehousing to the fields of high-value-added procurement allocation, transit assembly and intelligent logistics, and strive to promote the integration between the Comprehensive Bonded Area with other ports. It will also take full advantage of the port as an extended port of the Comprehensive Bonded Area, promoting the integration between the Comprehensive Bonded Area and Dongguan Port, and enabling enterprises to enjoy faster customs clearance and lower logistics costs.

Adjust measures to local conditions and base on reality

Aim at attracting investment in high-tech and high value-added projects

The operation of the Comprehensive Bonded Area is just the beginning, the key is how to plan the industrial development, and make good use of the concept and policy of the Comprehensive Bonded Area.

The Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is developed from the Dongguan Bonded Logistics Center (Type B). As the highest form of customs special supervision area, the Comprehensive Bonded Area is essentially different from the Bonded Logistics Center in that it must be supported by higher-level industries and projects.

Sheng Fubin, head of the inspection team and deputy director of the Free Trade Department of the General Administration of Customs, suggested that the Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area is a special regulatory area established by the State Council, so Dongguan should make full use of its role and position, make overall planning for the industrial layout and development, coordinate development both in the upstream and downstream and the internal and external sectors of this area, form an agglomeration effect, and promote prosperity and development of the local economy.

Lin Ji, Deputy Secretary General of Guangdong government, hopes that Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area can find a way with its own characteristics according to local conditions, have clear awareness of its position and make its industrial plans based on the local industrial foundation, and play a role in promoting regional economy. Meanwhile, he thinks it is necessary to understand and make full use of relevant concepts and policies, and give full play to the policy dividend brought by the Comprehensive Bonded Area in accordance with the 21 new measures of the Opinions of the State Council on Promoting the High-level Opening and High-quality Development of the Comprehensive Bonded Area.

In fact, during the application of establishing the Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area, such preparation work has been completed as special studies including industrial development planning, research on investment attracting mode, construction and implementation plan, clear development orientation and direction, and future focus on introducing high-quality projects with large investment scale, high technology and strong radiation effect.

As a line in an ancient Chinese poem goes: the ducks will be the first to know when the spring river turns warm. Similarly, capital is very sensitive. The prominent location and convenient transportation of the Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area has attracted many enterprises when it was still under construction, creating an environment where traditional businesses are developing while new ones are emerging.

In terms of traditional business forms, the bonded export assembly project of IKEA that has been implemented is the only bonded warehouse of IKEA in South China; the supply chain base project of Feilida in South China is the distribution center of computer accessories and components in this area, with an annual import and export volume of RMB 24 billion.

In addition, taking advantage of the opportunities brought by the development of Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area actively promotes the cooperation between Dongguan and Hong Kong. It is now vigorously promoting the implementation of cooperation projects with relevant institutions in Hong Kong.

Regarding emerging business forms, Xinning company has piloted the overseas detection and maintenance business of oppo mobile phone in the Comprehensive Bonded Area, and will on this basis set up a global detection and maintenance center in the Area; enterprises such as Tostar and Zhengye technology will sign an agreement of intent with the Comprehensive Bonded Area.

After the formal acceptance, the priority of the Comprehensive Bonded Area will fully shift from construction to investment attraction, trying to attract leading enterprises in electronic information, intelligent equipment and others, and attract talents from areas such as international trade, shipping and finance.

On the one hand, Dongguan will, by vigorously facilitating publicity and making full use of various expositions and media platforms, carry out all-round and in-depth promotion to constantly improve the overall image of the Comprehensive Bonded Area and increase its fame and investment attraction.

On the other hand, based on Dongguan's manufacturing industry foundation and export-oriented economy, in accordance to the 21 new measures, Humen Port Comprehensive Bonded Area will vigorously introduce and develop high-end manufacturing, R&D, productive service trade, inspection and maintenance and other business forms according to local conditions. Through the formulation of special plans, the implementation of proper investment promotion, the introduction of leading enterprises, the creation of competitive products, a "Dongguan model" of development with high level, openness and high quality is to be created. At the same time, supporting capacity and service should be improved, preparation for the project should be made in feasibility study, planning and site selection, land pre-examination and environmental assessment, etc., so that it will be possible for projects to be implemented without waiting.

Source: timedg.com