CCTV news: From August 19th to 24th, a series of APEC customs activities hosted by China Customs are being held in Dalian, Liaoning. This is also an important part of the third APEC Senior Officials Meeting.

At present, the series of activities has entered the final stage.How is the progress on site and what practical results have been achieved?

CCTV reporter Ye Huan: If I could sum up my feelings during the past few days of interviews in one sentence, it would be: an appointment in Bincheng, gathering of friends.In this series of events, customs representatives from all 21 APEC economies were present, as well as international organizations, Chinese and foreign enterprises, experts and scholars, with a total of 500 participants. It can be said to be a high-level event in the Asia-Pacific customs field.

Signed multiple agricultural, food and customs cooperation agreements

This event also yielded a number of solid cooperation results.China Customs has signed 6 cooperation agreements in the field of agricultural, food and customs products with corresponding departments of multiple APEC economies.Among these six bilateral agreements, four focus on the import of agricultural and food products, covering key categories such as fresh fruits and aquatic products.For example, China and Chile signed a memorandum of understanding on phytosanitary cooperation for fresh fruits exported to China.

Most of these agreements focus on practical arrangements for import customs clearance, inspection and quarantine, helping agricultural and food products from Asia-Pacific economies enter the Chinese market more smoothly.

APEC economies are an important source of imports for my country. More than half of my country's import trade comes from the Asia-Pacific region, mainly high-tech equipment, mechanical and electrical intermediates, energy and minerals, and high-quality agricultural and food products. It not only provides key production factors for the domestic manufacturing industry, but also continues to enrich the supply of the domestic consumer market.As the head of the General Administration of Customs put forward at the conference, it is necessary to "let more and more good products from around the world enter the Chinese market faster", and this batch of signed bilateral agreements is the practical implementation of this initiative.

Smart CustomsUsing AI to empower new practices in cross-border trade supervision

The second profound impression at this conference is that there is a very high level of discussion on the construction of smart customs and artificial intelligence empowering cross-border trade supervision.In the past few days, in almost every dialogue session, participants could be heard sharing their thoughts and practices on the application of artificial intelligence.Chinese representatives also issued an initiative calling on all parties to proactively embrace new technologies and jointly optimize the cross-border trade customs clearance supervision process.

On the third floor of the conference center, China Customs has specially arranged an exhibition area for intelligent supervision equipment, displaying a variety of domestically produced hard-core intelligent equipment.Among them, the "Octopus" underwater robot can dive to a depth of 300 meters and complete an all-round and accurate inspection of a cargo ship.In the past, artificial diving depth was only 15 to 20 meters, which not only had a limited detection range and inspection blind spots, but also had high operational risks.

The five intelligent inspection equipment on display were independently developed by customs in different regions across the country based on the difficulties of front-line supervision, covering multiple scenarios such as underwater inspection, rapid inspection and release, and intelligent research and judgment.These down-to-earth, practical and domestically produced smart equipment also impressed many foreign guests.

A Malaysian representative was highly impressed by the digitalization and intelligence achievements of China Customs. She was amazed that China has deeply applied AI technology to such rich customs supervision scenarios. She hoped that her country could also introduce relevant smart equipment in the future to improve their customs clearance efficiency.

Eduardo Pedrosa, Executive Director of the APEC Secretariat, quoted an Arabic proverb at the conference, which is "Walking alone is fast, traveling together is far", which is what the Chinese often say, "The more friends the road is easier."This spirit of cooperation is a vivid reflection of the spirit of the APEC family.The future of Asia-Pacific trade depends on the ability of various economies to carry out mutual trust and cooperation and jointly create a more resilient, interconnected and inclusive trade environment.