With the promotion of innovative trade facilitation measures and professional trade platforms, the bonded area of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) has attracted foreign investments and large-scale industry clusters since it opened, domestic news site Chinanews.com reported on Thursday.
Covering an area of 28.78 square kilometers, the bonded area consists of the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone, Waigaoqiao Free Trade Logistics Park, Yangshan Free Trade Port Area and Pudong Airport Free Trade Zone.
The report said measures, including facilitation of customs clearance procedures in the bonded area, have greatly increased the companies' efficiency. For example, the average entry time of inbound goods has been shortened to two to three days. Meanwhile, the companies' logistics costs have been reduced by more than 10 percent.
As of the end of June 2018, 30,700 enterprises were newly established in the bonded area, of which 7,700 were foreign ones, the report said, citing Li Zhaojie, deputy director of the FTZ administration.
The report also noted that by establishing professional trading platforms in sectors such as machine tools, cosmetics, medical equipment, and intelligent manufacturing, the bonded area has attracted large-scale industrial clusters, including six industrial clusters worth over 100 billion yuan ($14.56 billion) and 10 industrial clusters worth more than 10 billion yuan over the past five years.
In 2017, total sales of intelligent manufacturing service enterprises in the bonded area approached 62 billion yuan, an increase of 37 percent over the previous year.
"The initiatives promoted in the bonded area have boosted the market, and driven economic growth in terms of volume and quality," said Xiao Fan, head of the economic development department at the FTZ administration.
Innovative policies tested in the FTZ bonded area have already been introduced nationwide or in select regions, and more policies covering investments, trade, finance, market access and supervision will soon be expanded across the country, Shanghai's Pudong district website said.
