This is a feature report by Hunan Daily focusing on Jinxia Economic Development Zone's role in boosting the development of Changsha's open economy.

The 2019 Hunan-Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area Investment and Trade Conference was held on Apr. 16, and Jinxia Economic Development Zone was the focus of attention at the conference.

The import and export volume of Jinxia Economic Development Zone reached 988 million US dollars in 2018. In January 2019, 20 industrial projects brought in 12.3 billion yuan to the park, and 2,249 enterprises joined Jinxia last year.

More than 60% of the foreign trade containers in the province set sail from Jinxia; 11 railway lines covering 14 countries and 27 regions started from Jinxia; and Central China Highway Hub Port, which connects 14 cities and prefectures of the province, was set up in Jinxia.

All these achievements resulted from the best business environment, the fastest logistics channel and the best open platform of Jinxia.

Focusing on business environment optimization

Li Guojun, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Jinxia Economic Development Zone, said:“Business environment is like the climate, soil and water for enterprise development. Wherever there is a good business environment, 'migratory birds' fly to.”

The park has studied the advanced experience of Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou for many times, and combined with the characteristics of the park, it has promulgated more than 20 special support policies on technological transformation and upgrading of industrial enterprises, cleaner production and less electricity fees and freight subsidies.

Since October 2018, 50 key enterprises have been assisted, 750 sets of policies have been compiled, 138 million yuan have been paid to support and reward the companies, 238 claims have been settled, and the rate of policy implementation and claim settlement are both 100%.

The park overtook 35 economic administrative approvals lowered by Changsha City and Kaifu District. It not only upgraded the government service hall, but also managed to provide one-stop service in the park covering customs, commodity inspection, industry and commerce, taxation, port office and other institutions.

This year, the examination and approval process has been reduced by 31%, the application materials have been simplified by 18%, and the processing time has been shortened by 73% compared with the statutory time limit.

Financing is the most common headache for enterprises. The park has injected 20 million yuan, set up a credit risk compensation fund for small and micro enterprises, and guided banks and other financial institutions to lend 80 million yuan to 10 enterprises.

The park has also constructed an industrial chain ecological circle of "Internet + foreign trade integrated services + supply chain finance", and held joint meetings between banks and enterprises to achieve a financing intention of more than 53 million yuan.

Kang Zhenlin, director of Administrative Committee of Jinxia Economic Development Zone, said that on the one hand, the park will ensure the implementation of various policies in accordance with the relevant system; on the other hand, the park will provide funds to support small and medium-sized enterprises, and cash in rewards and subsidies through the establishment of a normal mechanism of bank-enterprise docking cooperation.

Perfecting infrastructure construction

Jinxia Economic Development Zone is the only modern logistics park in Hunan Province that integrates the advantages of multiple modes of transportation such as waterway, railway, land, tube and airport.

As a national second-class waterway port, more than 60% of the export containers in the province are shipped from Changsha New Port to the world.

After the construction of Phase I and Phase II, the present Changsha New Port has eight 1,000-ton-level wharfs. In 2017, the provincial and municipal governments invested 1.14 billion yuan to start the third phase construction, and the perfect design effectively formed the seamless connection of "waterway, railway and land" transportation.

In the past four years, the handling capacity of Changsha New Port has risen sharply. Changsha New Port has realized the comprehensive service function from single transport function. After the completion of the third phase, the transportation capacity can exceed 10 million tons per year.

Xin Hua, deputy general manager of Changsha New Port, said that Changsha Port, which has obvious transport capacity and price advantages, will usher in a new round of development with the emphasis of the country on manufacturing industry and with the subdivision and transparency of the prices of bulk goods such as steel and grain.

From October 2014 to March 2019, China Railway Express (Changsha) have shipped 509 columns over the past 4 years, and the import and export goods have reached 41,798 TEUs, with a total value of more than 2 billion US dollars. It has become an important channel and famous brand for Hunan to participate in the "Belt and Road".

The China Railway Express (Changsha) was incorporated into the unified brand management of the China Railway Express in 2016, and Changsha was listed as a "dual node" city.

In 2017, the import and export volume of China Railway Express (Changsha) ranked among the top five in China Railway Express.

Jinxia planned a land use of more than 800 mu (533,333 square meters) for highway ports in 2014, 3 kilometers east of Changsha New Port and Changsha New North Railway Freight Station.

Transfar invested 1 billion yuan to settle its Central China Highway Hub Port in Jinxia on Nov. 20, 2015. The total construction area of this intelligent logistics highway port is more than 190,000 square meters.

The Transfar Highway Port, which was built over two years, was officially completed on Aug.17, 2018. Nearly 1,000 enterprises settled in the highway port, and the average daily cargo handling capacity exceeds 78,000 tons, the value of goods is nearly 1.1 billion yuan.

Liu Youliang, deputy general manager of Changsha Transfar Highway Port, said: "Due to the intelligent logistics network system built by Jinxia Park, the no-load rate of freight cars entering the port can be reduced by 50%, and the logistics cost can be reduced by 40%.

Expanding cooperation with overseas

Opening-up is a further requirement for the development in the new era. Pei Wenhuan, secretary of the Party Working Committee of Jinxia Bonded Logistics Center, believes that the key is to find a different path with Jinxia characteristics.

"We will closely follow the needs of accelerating the development of export-oriented economy in our province, especially in Changsha, to promote transformation, and form a development system of characteristic industries in Jinxia with three major industrial development modes, six key industrial fields and 16 industrial development directions."

The Bonded Logistics Center has integrated with the Cross-border E-commerce Supervision Center, Bonded Exhibition and Trading Center, and Port Railway Channel, becoming the most comprehensive customs supervision platform with the most complete port functions and the largest volume of import and export business.

Jinxia Bonded Logistics Center has entered the era of full-speed development of national strategy when Changsha became part of the second batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test zones in China on Jul. 13, 2018.

In 2018, Jinxia set a three-year action goal, namely, the development goal of cross-border e-commerce in 2018 reaches 300 million US dollars, 700 million US dollars in 2019, and 1.4 billion US dollars in 2020.

The imports and exports of B2B and B2C are 350 million respectively in 2019. By 2020, the imports and exports of B2B and B2C are expected to be 800 million US dollars and 600 million US dollars respectively.

Jinxia Bonded Logistics Center and Fujian Zhonghai Warehouse Supply Chain Management Co., Ltd. have reached a cooperative intention agreement and will jointly invest 168 million yuan to establish Jinxia Foreign Trade Enterprise Service Center to provide supply chain finance service and other comprehensive services for foreign trade enterprises.

At the same time, Guardian Education, APTECH and other educational institutions have settled in the park. Along with other institutions, they built a cross-border e-commerce and education integration talent training base.

Changsha held a special meeting in 2017 to encourage Changsha enterprises to join the “Belt and Road”

In June 2018, Jinxia introduced the project of "Foreign Trade Industry Base for People Overseas", with a total export volume of 30 million US dollars in three months.

“We held the 'Belt and Road' International Environmental Matchmaking Fair in 2019, and 15 countries actively participated. It is expected that the bidding amount will exceed 1 billion US dollars this year,” said Zhang Xianghua, chairman of the base.

He also said that opening-up is the main theme of the era, especially the countries along the "Belt and Road". They are eager to communicate, interact and cooperate with other countries.

With Jinxia's policy advantages, channel advantages and resource advantages, 30 enterprises from 30 countries have settled in Jinxia Overseas Trade Industrial Base, which covers eight major industries such as chemical industry, mining industry, energy, machinery, construction, agriculture, electronics and clothing.

It is expected that by 2023, a new mode of international trade will be formed with "base enterprise resources" + "industrial chain".

Five hundred competitive foreign trade enterprises will be introduced and cultivated within five years, so as to promote the rapid integration of Hunan Province into the global value chain.

Edited by Li Bin