China set up its first pilot free trade zone (FTZ) in Shanghai on September 29, 2013, and this year marks the 10th anniversary of its pilot FTZ construction. The import and export value of China (Hunan) Pilot FTZ reached 114.579 billion CNY in the first eight months of this year, accounting for 27.3% of Hunan Province's total, the Changsha Customs said on September 29.

The Hunan FTZ has witnessed continuous growth in imports and exports since it was approved in September 2020. Its total foreign trade amounted to 213.588 billion CNY in 2022, a year-on-year increase of 27.8%.

Over the past three years, Changsha Customs has achieved fruitful results in advancing Hunan FTZ construction:

In terms of China-Africa cooperation, it released the China-Africa trade index for the first time at the Third China-Africa Economic and Trade Expo; assisted the General Administration of Customs in promoting the signing of the first AEO mutual recognition agreement between China and Uganda; completed the assessment of approval for Tanzanian wild aquatic products, Gambian cashews, and other six kinds of products; and, carried forward the first import of Kenyan anchovies.

As for cultivating new formats development, it explored solutions to compliance storage problems of cross-border e-commerce imports of hazardous chemicals commodities under supervision such as perfume. About 70,000 bottles of imported bonded perfume were purchased online during the January-August period this year.

Hunan products are delivered more smoothly out of the province, thanks to the systematic innovation. The Changsha Customs took the lead in inland areas of China to open up a new land transportation channel under the Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong Single E-lock Scheme (SELS), reducing the transportation time of goods between Hunan, Guangdong, and Hong Kong. By the end of this August, 88 batches of goods were imported and exported between Hunan and Hong Kong under the SELS, with a value of 240 million CNY. The customs initiated a new mode of information-aided supervision of fireworks exports to ensure safe and stable export of fireworks, which increased the efficiency of customs clearance by 20%.

Meanwhile, the Changsha Customs created China's first innovative valuation model of excluding imported transit goods inland waterway freight from the duty-paid price, to eliminate the cost gap between inland waterways and coastal ports in the tax base. Since its official implementation in September 2021, it has helped enterprises save 9.662 million CNY of taxes, which has been popularized throughout the country since this May.

Its new supervision model for international mail, international express, and cross-border e-commerce business has been published and popularized by the Inter-ministerial Joint Conference of the State Council. This was the first national examplary case of Hunan FTZ since its establishment.

A total of 25.59 million items have passed customs clearance at the Changsha Customs between the period of the establishment of Hunan FTZ and the end of this August.

The Changsha Customs, together with science and technology, public security and other departments, has jointly created a "one-stop service center for foreigners working in China". The center has reduced the number of examination and approval procedures by about 50% and compressed the time limit for examination and approval by nearly 70%.

Translator: Yu Jiangjiang

Chinese source: Official WeChat of China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone