First Attempts of Lianyungang Free Trade Zone Produce Innovative "Fruits"

From: Lianyungang Daily Updated: 2023-09-20 04:34

Accelerating the implementation of the free trade zone strategy is an objective requirement to adapt to the new trend of economic globalization, and an inevitable choice to comprehensively deepen reform and build a new open economy system. In the past 4 years since the approval of the Lianyungang Free Trade Zone, with institutional innovation as the core, based on characteristics, a total of 155 institutional innovation achievements have been formed through bold exploration and pioneering efforts. Among them, 3 achievements were replicated and promoted at the national level, 3 were upgraded to national standards, 2 were registered and recognized by the General Administration of Customs, and 36 achievements of "Lianyungang Experience" were replicated and promoted at the provincial level. Lianyungang contributed nearly one-third institutional innovation at the provincial-level or above with one fifth of the province's area.

“Thanks to the innovative reform of Lianyungang Maritime Bureau, we no longer have to travel back and forth between Lianyungang and Yancheng. After submitting applications online, we directly mail the materials to the maritime window, and the certificate will be mailed to us after it is issued. The certificate, used to be issued in 7 working days, can now be completed in two or three days. This not only improves work efficiency and quality, but also reduces the company's operating cost.” In order to express gratitude for the convenience brought by the innovative "closed-loop management of maritime affairs" by the Lianyungang Maritime Bureau, Yancheng Haitong International Ocean Shipping Co., Ltd. sent a letter of acknowledgement.

The "Maritime Government Closed-loop Management" is a reform and innovation achievement of the Lianyungang Free Trade Zone in the field of government management innovation. This innovative measure has been selected as the "Seventh Batch of Reform Pilot Experience of the Free Trade Zone" by the State Council and replicated and promoted nationwide. In recent years, the maritime department of Lianyungang Free Trade Zone has explored a new way of online paperless service. On the basis of "Interne + Window", it has promoted a new maritime government closed-loop management mode of "online approval process", which is composed of three service measures: mail acceptance, online approval and mail certificate issuance. In particular, mail acceptance has opened up the "last mile" of "no meeting", benefiting the crew groups from provinces such as Henan, Anhui, Sichuan, Shanxi and Hubei. It effectively assisted the development of the central and western regions. So far, the online approval business volume of the Lianyungang Free Trade Zone's maritime affairs accounts for over 97% of the total business volume, and the compressed legal completion time limit rate has reached over 65%.

The highlight of the pilot free trade zone is institutional innovation. Among the 155 "Lianyungang Experience" projects, in addition to the "closed-loop management of maritime affairs", two new models of "bonded+export" cargo container blending and the "risk classification" model of imported grain quality inspection have been registered by the General Administration of Customs; two pieces of work experience, including the construction of multimodal transport system and cooperation with countries along the "Belt and Road", were promoted at the inter ministerial joint meeting of the State Council; another 2 were selected as recommended cases for institutional innovation in the Yangtze River Delta Pilot Free Trade Zone Alliance, and 3 were selected as one of the "Top 10 Institutional Innovation Achievements" in the province.

In October 2019, the Lianyungang Free Trade Zone pioneered the new mode of "bonded+export" freight container mixing for China-Europe Railway Express, breaking through the restriction that general trade goods and bonded transit goods cannot be shipped in the same container. "In the past, when a small amount of transit goods from neighboring countries and regions arrived at Lianyungang Port, they could only be shipped after the containers were full. Now, after arriving at the dock, the goods are first pulled to the bonded warehouse and transported to the countries along the Belt and Road through the ‘bonded+export’ mode." Tao Bang, manager of the Market Commerce Department of China-Kazakhstan (Lianyungang) Logistics Base, said. This model supports the joint loading of bonded transit departing goods in China-Europe Railway Express and domestic general trade export goods into containers, saving enterprises an average of 73% of logistics cost per shipment and more than 15 days of waiting.