Shenzhen rolls out 18 measures to boost development of comprehensive bonded zones

Shenzhen recently has unveiled a comprehensive plan featuring 18 specific measures designed to stimulate foreign trade, enhance industrial upgrades, expand high-level opening-up, and strengthen the competitive advantages of the city’s comprehensive bonded zones.

An aerial view of Shenzhen Port. Photo from Shenzhen Commercial Zone Daily

Among the key initiatives is to enhance overall guidance for the establishment and adjustment of planning layouts, alongside research efforts focusing on management organizations, industrial planning, and investment attraction. The plan aims to promote integration with free trade zones, replicating successful innovations from the Qianhai Shekou Free Trade Zone, and to drive collaborative innovation and systematic reforms.

Support for innovative pilot projects will be prioritized, including the simplification of import and export procedures for research and development equipment in the Futian Bonded Zone. There will also be a focus on developing multimodal transportation options in the Qianhai and Yantian comprehensive bonded zones and establishing testing and maintenance service platforms in the Pingshan Comprehensive Bonded Zone. These efforts are intended to foster integrated development across production, supply, sales, domestic and foreign trade, and capital flows.

The measures are set to further utilize the role of comprehensive bonded zones in promoting stable growth in the quality of foreign trade, facilitating coordinated regional development, and establishing key commodity trading platforms. The initiative emphasizes the development of service trade, green trade, and digital trade to cultivate new advantages in foreign trade, along with the establishment of international trade platforms within these zones to expedite the implementation of significant projects.

The city will include reforms focused on "delegation, regulation, and service" that will improve the management of entry and exit within the zones while facilitating deeper trade processes. A more flexible declaration model will be introduced, supported by innovations in regulatory concepts and management practices to enhance intelligent and information-based administration. Additionally, efforts will be made to strengthen mutual recognition in testing and certification services between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, promoting more enterprises to attain Authorized Economic Operator (AEO) status.

Further, the plan establishes mechanisms for long-term coordination between special planning, inter-city collaboration, and the management of bonded areas. There will be encouragement to revitalize underperforming industrial land and increase support for public facilities, employment, and social security within comprehensive bonded zones, ensuring a more robust development framework for the region.