Nansha achieves fruitful results in customs clearance reform

The establishment of Nansha's International Trade Digital General Service System is one of the major innovative outcomes in Nansha's customs clearance reform. [Photo/gznsnews.com.cn]

The Nansha area of the Guangdong (China) Pilot Free Trade Zone has released a total of 172 innovative measures in customs clearance reform since it was inaugurated five years ago, officials announced during a press conference held on April 23.

Nansha has been a pioneer in China in establishing the International Trade Digital General Service System. "Nansha has integrated three projects, namely the global customs declaration service system, global traceability center, and global quality distribution center, to increase the velocity of international trade goods and cut down the cross-border trade cost," said Luo Jianwen, an official from Nansha Port.

At present, a total of 14,932 companies have used the service system to carry out tracing for goods worth $60.5 billion.

The distribution center has welcomed several prestigious companies, such as Procter & Gamble, Nestle, Danone, Amway, and Bayer, achieving an overall import and export value of 2.14 billion yuan ($302.02 million) in 2019.

Since the establishment of Nansha New Area, the container handling capability of Nansha Port has increased rapidly with the number reaching 16.76 million twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) in 2019 compared to 11.15 million TEUs in 2014, an average annual growth of seven percent.

Zhou Bin, vice director of Nansha Customs, said that the time for import clearance has been shortened by 65 percent to 31.8 hours by December 2019 compared to the time in 2017, while the time for export clearance was 3.46 hours in 2019, an 88 percent reduction compared to the time in 2017.

Currently, the global top 21 liner ship companies have settled down in Nansha, opening a total of 108 foreign trade ship lines and carrying out marine trade with more than 400 ports from over 100 countries and regions.