It is reported that on the Regulatory Service System Innovation news conference held by Shanghai FTZ on March 22nd , Zhang Wansheng, Director of Department of Processing Trade and Customs Bonded Operation, released that from January to March, Shanghai FTZ saw an import and export value of 30.41 billion USD, a y-o-y increase of 6.5%, the custom tax of 23.46 billion RMB, a y-o-y increase of 10.5%.

Zhang said, the establishment of Shanghai FTZ is an important decision of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. Shanghai FTZ is established on the basis of the following four special customs supervision zones: Shanghai Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, Waigaoqiao bonded Logistics Park, Yangshan bonded Port Area and Pudong Airport Comprehensive Bonded Zone. The establishment of Shanghai FTZ, shows the trust from the central government towards special customs supervision zones, also provides new opportunities for exploring reform and innovation of custom supervision service of these zones. It also explores new ideas and new ways for the national opening up and further reform.

Therefore, the customs tries to accelerate its government functions’ transformation, innovate based on the market laws, and further transform its functions, optimize its services, and supervise in a scientific way, realize the aim of “Intensive streamline administration, Clearance convenient, Safe and efficient”. Through six months of active exploration and practice, an overall reform project on customs’ support on the development of FTZ has been formed, and is under active promotion.

Zhang introduced that, in perspective of customs’ work, we can see that since the establishment of Shanghai FTZ on September 29th, 2013, the system innovation has showed its bonus, effectively improved the clearance efficiency, and reduced the logistic cost. It is estimated that the clearance time has been shortened to 2 to 3 days averagely, and thus can save the logistic cost by about 10%. The market activity is significantly released. By the end of the March, there were 2438 companies newly registered, thus a total of 7392 in the FTZ, with a trend of rapid growth, and diversified development. The trade is in steady growth. From January to March this year, the import and export value of the FTZ amounted to 30.41 billion USD, a y-o-y increase of 6.5%, the customs tax reached 23.46 billion RMB, a y-o-y increase of 10.5%. The regional function continues to expand, pushing about 350 companies to expand functions from 10 fields including headquarters economy, cross-border e-commerce, global maintenance, finance lease, cultural trade and so on, involving an import and export value of over ten billion dollars.

Zhang also said, the overall operation of the FTZ is in good condition, and results are in line with expectations.