Shenzhen customs speed up trade with IT innovations

As global trade slows amid sluggish demand, Shenzhen customs authorities have placed a premium on innovations and reforms to improve work efficiency and help Chinese companies with business abroad.

China's Internet Plus strategy, which seeks to spur growth by integrating Internet-based technologies with traditional manufacturing industries, has been widely applied in the city's customs department operations.

Enterprises conducting trade in and out of Shenzhen are currently able to submit applications and queries and take care of other customs' procedures online instead of physically visiting customs offices around the city.

"The innovation has brought real convenience to our company," said Lu Xinming, general manager of Shenzhen Welmetal Steel Sheet Co Ltd. "Now, I can just sit in the office and complete the whole process by just clicking the mouse."

Companies interviewed by China Daily claimed that time dealing with customs authorities has been cut down by more than 70 percent and that the annual cost for printing paper has been reduced by millions of yuan.

Customs authorities have also applied information technology software to its clearance services. About 8.9 million customs declarations were made online last year, accounting for over 90 percent of the total amount. About 85,000 enterprises made use of the city's online customs clearance services.

"We are able to save a lot of human resources and cost because of the reform as workers no longer need to submit customs declarations on site," said Xin Yingjie, manager of the China Merchants Union Customs Clearance Co.

"For every declaration form, we are able to save 1 yuan (15 cents). Over 200,000 yuan can be saved each year just in terms of printing."

According to Shenzhen customs, the city's imports and exports reached about 2.75 trillion yuan last year. Exports were valued at 1.64 trillion yuan, ranking it first among all cities on the mainland.

Shenzhen customs authorities have also been promoting a "proactive disclosure" system that encourages export and import enterprises to make self-disclosures of their misconduct.

Wu Langhua, head of the inspection department at Shenzhen customs, said the move is in line with modern customs systems around the world and can help domestic enterprises become more involved in global trade.

So far, 24 companies have reported their own misconduct and have received preferential treatment.

To support the development of the Guangdong Pilot Free Trade Zone, Shenzhen customs last July announced it will carry out 30 supervision measures aiming to promote new industries in the city's Shekou and Qianhai areas, which are in the Guangdong FTZ.

By the end of last year, the city's customs department had adopted eight new measures from the Shanghai FTZ, including one-stop declarations that can reduce wait times from two hours to 30 minutes and paperless clearance, cutting about 400,000 copies of documents for companies each month.

Speeding up shipping

It has also established a special channel to speed up cargo transportation between Hong Kong and Qianhai, utilizing IT card swipes and electronic devices.

The Customs authorities have also altered how companies register for clearances to allow them to cut down on their time preparing documents.

The city's customs authorities have also streamlined the functions of other zones under their administration to further facilitate the city's international trade.

The Yantian Comprehensive Bonded Zone in the east of Shenzhen, for instance, passed a national examination on Jan 15 and was upgraded to one of the customs-controlled zones with the highest level of openness and the most preferential policies.

The export tax on domestic products can be refunded once transported into the zone and product transactions in the area are exempt from value-added and consumption taxes.

With a planned area of 2.17 square kilometers, it is expected to be a matching facility for the Guangdong FTZ. Companies in the zone can carry out cross-border e-commerce, exhibitions and other new businesses.

Cross-border e-commerce has been booming in Shenzhen, which has more than 4,000 registered companies in the sector.

To support their growth, Shenzhen customs has promised 24-hour inspection for cargo so that the products can be delivered sooner to customers.

The customs department is currently working with the local government to establish a Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border e-commerce ecosystem with the free trade zone as its core and airports and ports in the two cities as supporting facilities.

Contact the writers at sally@chinadailyhk.com and grace@chinadailyhk.com

(China Daily 01/27/2016 page7)