Beihu District Addressees "Bottleneck in Opening-up" with Three New Foreign Trade Measures

Export Channel "Moved" to the Doorstep

Recently, a dedicated rail-sea intermodal freight train carrying 20 containers of photovoltaic glass departed from Chenzhou Land Port, bound for the United States. The goods are to be used for local new energy power station construction. A few years ago, shipping the same cargo had to go through cumbersome customs clearance procedures and lengthy waits in ports. The shift from "waiting" to "departing" reflects the new changes in Beihu District, where institutional innovation is breaking through the bottlenecks of inland opening-up.

Since the beginning of this year, three institutional innovations in foreign trade—the new multimodal transport customs supervision model, "zone-port linkage," and "one form, two declarations"—have been rolled out in Beihu District, opening new channels for inland enterprises to go global.

On January 29, Hunan's first shipment of imported goods under the new multimodal transport customs supervision model cleared customs at Chenzhou Land Port, achieving "a single customs declaration with a single transport document." This initiative helped reduce manual intervention by 90%, improve transshipment efficiency by 30%, and cut comprehensive logistics costs by 20%. On March 31, the "zone-port linkage" model was fully implemented. A total of 42 containers carrying 1,036 tonnes of photovoltaic glass from Chenzhou were exported to Jordan and Indonesia through "bonded logistics + rail-sea intermodal transport." On May 29, Hunan's first shipment of export goods under the "one form, two declarations" model arrived in Hong Kong. Enterprises need only enter data once on the mainland, and the system automatically converts it into declaration data that meets the customs requirements of both sides, achieving "one-time entry and mutual recognition between the two places."

The three measures all target the same breakthrough. In the past, export goods had to be transported to coastal ports and enterprises were eligible to apply for tax rebates only after the goods had completed customs clearance and actually left the country; if customs inspection was required, companies also had to wait at least one day at the port, potentially missing their shipping schedule. Now, the export channel has been "moved" from the coast to Chenzhou. Pan Qiaoli, export logistics specialist at Chenzhou Kibing Photovoltaic Glass Co., Ltd., noted, "We can get a tax refund immediately after completing the procedures at the comprehensive bonded zone—it's hassle-free, time-saving, and effortless."

From January to July, Beihu District (including the Chenzhou Economic Development Zone) registered a cumulative import and export volume of 15.06 billion CNY, a year-on-year increase of 13.4%. To date, the district is home to 94 enterprises with actual foreign trade performance, and seven production-oriented enterprises have recorded their first foreign trade transactions. Meanwhile, 243 specialists provide services for 475 enterprises, enabling them to "access benefits without application" and replacing in-person visits with data-driven processes.

This article is from Hunan Provincial Government. www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn