The China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Bonded Area, a special custom supervision area, generated annual revenue of 2.1 trillion yuan ($317.4 billion) in 2018, a year-on-year increase of 10 percent, local authorities recently announced.

Its sales of commodities, industrial and commercial tax, and customs revenue all exceeded half of the total amount generated by all the special customs supervision areas in the country.

The growth was greatly attributed to the 54 opening-up measures the bonded zone has implemented over the past five years since the inauguration of the Shanghai FTZ.

Measures involving finance, shipping, commerce and trade, culture, and many other fields have led to great progress in the attraction of foreign investment, further opening up of the service industry, and development of a headquarters economy.

Meanwhile, the zone has established a series of new mechanisms concerning investment management, trade supervision, financial innovation, and some other sectors that are aligned with international rules, making a lot of achievements.

For example, it optimized foreign investment negative list management. The foreign investment that actually arrived in 2018 reached 2.81 billion yuan. It also promoted service mechanism reform to greatly improve service efficiency. Administrative approval procedures for construction projects are being simplified.

The number of enterprises in the bonded zone has been on the rise, far more than the 8,000 enterprises before the inauguration of Shanghai FTZ.

The improvement of customs clearance efficiency is considered another driving force for the revenue growth.

Nearly 100 innovative measures have been launched by local trade and supervision departments for the improvement of customs clearance efficiency.

The Yangshan Free Trade Port Area Customs Clearance Service Center was launched last June, which increased convenience by integrating the functions of customs declaration and inspection and quarantine declaration.

Li Zhaojie, deputy director of Shanghai FTZ Bonded Area Management Bureau, considers that the center is conducive to improving the customs clearance efficiency at the port area. 

Thank to the innovative measures, the bonded zone's shipping logistics service revenue reached 161.6 billion yuan, up by 11 percent year on year.

Container area at the Yangshan Deepwater Port, part of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone. [Photo/Agencies]