On April 17, the staff of Ningbo Sovel Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. were packing, binding, and fixing more than 1,000 BYD new energy vehicles (NEVs) at the New Energy Vehicle Special Packing Yard of CITIC Gangtong International Logistics Co., Ltd. in the Meishan port area, Ningbo. After customs supervision and inspection, these vehicles will be shipped to Brazil, one of the BRICS countries.
In the first quarter of this year, Ningbo Port ushered in a "good start", with an import and export volume of RMB 576.95 billion, up 2.7% year on year. The steady growth of imports and exports should be attributable to Ningbo Customs' implementation of the important spirit General Secretary Xi Jinping mentioned in the reply letter to all officers of Khunjerab Customs. Ningbo Customs continuously improves the supervision efficiency and service level by better playing its role of guarding the national gateway and promoting development, transforms General Secretary Xi's earnest expectations into the work results of boosting the high-quality development of Ningbo's export-oriented economy, and strives to build an "important window" for China's modern customs.
Eliminating the difficulties in customs clearance for Ningbo's manufacturing enterprises and helping enterprises with high-level "going global" is another problem that Ningbo Customs needs to solve urgently under the new situation. As one of the "three new" products in foreign trade, NEVs have seen a surge in export volume in recent years, which puts forward new requirements for port customs clearance efficiency. Meishan Customs, affiliated with Ningbo Customs, focusing on the difficulties such as fewer traditional roll-on/roll-off ship routes and slow logistics speeds, has conducted in-depth research and repeated deliberation and innovatively implemented a "one-stop" supervision model for the export of NEVs in containers. The daily loading capacity of Meishan wharf has increased from 180 vehicles to more than 1,000 vehicles, shortening the overall customs clearance time by 2 to 3 days on average and saving about RMB 1,000 in operation cost per container. This case has been awarded among the first batch of best practice cases of "No. 1 Opening-up Project" to enhance the capacity of and update the "sweet potato economy" in Zhejiang Province.
Taking advantage of the Meishan Port Area's logistics, port, and industrial advantages in "vehicle import", Ningbo Customs has actively contributed to the implementation of General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instruction of "expanding commodity imports from CEE" and serving the construction of China-CEEC Economic and Trade Cooperation Demonstration Zone. CEECs represented by the Czech Republic, Poland, and Slovakia have relatively mature automobile industrial foundations, while Ningbo has comparative advantages in automobile and parts manufacturing. The automobile industries of both sides are highly complementary. Learning about the demand of Ningbo enterprises for importing automobiles from CEE, Ningbo Customs took the initiative to provide services. It conducted field research on automobile importers, and organized and released a guideline for the whole process of automobile import in the application of "One-stop Service for Imports from CEEC". In the first quarter of this year, Ningbo imported RMB 1.41 billion worth of automobiles from CEECs, accounting for 43.2% of its total imports from these countries.
Ningbo Customs bears in mind General Secretary Xi Jinping's important instruction of "building and managing the port well, and striving to build a world-class strong port", and vigorously implements convenient operation modes such as "direct pick-up at shipside", "direct loading upon arrival", and "departure confirmation" to promote synergy and boost efficiency. In 2023, Ningbo-Zhoushan Port became the third port in the world with an annual container volume of more than "35 million TEUs", further highlighting its status as a global hub port.
With the country's most fundamental interests in mind, Ningbo Customs insists on accurately addressing minor yet pressing issues. In view of the key problems commonly reflected by enterprises, such as inspection and packing of cross-border e-commerce export goods, it has applied the supervision mode of "inspection before shipment" for LCL export goods that was first proposed and piloted in China to cross-border e-commerce forward warehouses to facilitate trade customs clearance at ports. "Under this new mode, cross-border e-commerce export goods do not need to enter the port for inspection, which meets the requirements of punctual shipment and accurate packing while ensuring that customs supervision is in place, thus injecting vitality into the vigorous development of new formats and models of foreign trade," said Hong Ziye, deputy chief of the Integrated Business Section I of Meishan Customs.
Promoting the construction of smart customs and implementing the "Smart Customs Power" action are the key for customs authorities to build a solid security barrier at the frontline of national gateways, and also the main direction for these authorities to strive to create an important window for China's modern customs. Ningbo Customs has made an overall plan for the construction of smart customs to continuously create a safer, more convenient, and efficient port clearance environment.
To ensure the rapid export of fresh agricultural products, Ningbo Customs has comprehensively promoted the "cloud issuance" mode of inspection and quarantine certificates, and formulated local inspection modes such as "support for first-time export products", "production season supervision", and "intelligent inspection". In 2023, Ningbo's agricultural exports exceeded RMB 10 billion for the first time, reaching RMB 10.23 billion, a year-on-year increase of 7.7%. In the first quarter of this year, Ningbo's agricultural exports reached RMB 6.99 billion, up 13.3 percent year on year. In response to the diversified development of the cross-border e-commerce consumer market, Ningbo Free Trade Zone Customs under Ningbo Customs has developed and launched a "cross-border commodity package sales system". In 2023, the cross-border commodity package sales revenue reached RMB 2.601 billion, up 204% year on year.
The tide swells from the east, and the sail billows in the breeze. Moving ahead, Ningbo Customs will follow the high standards and strict requirements of "being a good guard of the national gateway", take promoting China's modernization as its overriding political task, and focus on the duty and mission of guarding the national gateway and promoting development, contributing "Ningbo wisdom" to building a socialist modern customs with Chinese characteristics.
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