On January 5, the reporter learned from Chengdu Customs that, on four aspects, including promoting large-scale development through large-scale opening up, promoting the development of characteristic and advantageous industries, supporting the creation of a first-class port business environment, and building a solid national gate security barrier, the General Administration of Customs announced on January 5 that it would introduce 15 measures to support the new era to further promote the formation of a new pattern of western development.

In recent years, the General Administration of Customs has made joint efforts through a number of measures to promote the continuous improvement of the degree of openness in the western region and achieve rapid development of foreign trade. From 2020 to 2023, the total import and export value of western regions increased from 2.96 trillion yuan to 3.74 trillion yuan, an average annual growth of 8.5%, 1.2 percentage points higher than the national average during the same period. According to Chengdu Customs statistics, in the first 11 months of 2024, the total import and export value of the western region was 3.63 trillion yuan, a record high in the same period, an increase of 8% year-on-year, and a growth rate of 3.1 percentage points higher than the national average.

According to reports, in the next step, the General Administration of Customs will guide customs in the western region to give full play to the role of the coordinated and coordinated working mechanism, promote the implementation of 15 support measures, help optimize the regional open layout, work together to promote the construction of a major international logistics channel, and accelerate the formation of a comprehensive opening pattern of land, sea, domestic and foreign linkage, and east-west mutual assistance.

Improve the energy level of open channels

Support Chengdu and other places to build international aviation hubs

The support measures issued this time clearly propose to support the construction of open ports in the western region, improve the energy level of open channels, release the momentum of open platforms, and promote the coordination of open development. Specific measures include:

Support areas that are in need and meet the conditions to apply for port opening or expand opening up in accordance with the prescribed procedures, support the construction of smart ports, enrich and improve port functions; explore and innovate customs supervision facilitation measures such as river-sea transport and railway-sea transport, and support the high-quality development of multimodal transport; support the construction of international aviation hubs such as Chengdu, Chongqing, Kunming, Xi'an, Urumqi; support areas that are in need and meet the conditions to establish comprehensive bonded zones and bonded logistics centers (type B), and explore the reforms of "zone-port integration" in the western region.

Support the western region

Develop new quality productivity according to local conditions

Industry is an important support and key driving force for economic development. The support measures issued by the General Administration of Customs propose to support the expansion of clusters of advantageous industries in the western region, the transformation and upgrading of traditional industries, the accelerated development of characteristic industries, the innovation of new business forms and new models, and the orderly and stable border trade in the western region. The main measures include:

Support the western region to develop new quality productivity according to local conditions; support traditional industrial enterprises to import advanced technologies, important equipment, key components, etc. for technical transformation and equipment updates; support qualified enterprises outside the district to apply for high-value bonded maintenance business of "two ends outside" (i.e.: raw materials import, domestic production, sales and exports, and the raw materials and sales markets in production and operation activities are all international markets); increase the efforts to cultivate characteristic agricultural and food products brands, and promote the expansion of exports of advantageous and characteristic products such as vegetables, fruits, tea, Chinese medicinal materials, and alcohol; support bonded research and development, bonded maintenance, bonded remanufacturing, bonded display and transactions, and financial leasing in the western region; support the development of border trade and encourage the diversified development of border trade.

Support more customs reform measures

Prefer priority to replication and promotion in the western region

In terms of port business environment construction, the General Administration of Customs proposed to focus on improving the level of cross-border trade facilitation, optimizing the quality and efficiency of enterprise services, deepening customs supervision and service cooperation, and helping to create a market-oriented, law-based, internationalized first-class port business environment. The main measures are: support the qualified port cities in the western region to be included in the pilot cities of the special action to promote cross-border trade facilitation led by the General Administration of Customs, and support more customs reform measures to be replicated and promoted in the western region first; give full play to the role of mechanisms such as "customs chief delivers policies to the door" to strengthen personalized services to help enterprises alleviate difficulties; implement free trade agreements such as RCEP with high quality; increase the cultivation of customs "certified operators" (AEO) for customs, strengthen the cultivation of independent intellectual property advantages and the protection of intellectual property customs; build a customs cooperation mechanism in the western region, strengthen customs cooperation and linkage between the western region and the central and eastern regions.

In addition, in order to build a solid ecological biosecurity defense line in the country, promote the safety and stability of industrial chains and supply chains in key areas such as grain, energy and mineral resources, and maintain a safe development environment, the General Administration of Customs has introduced relevant specific measures.