Southern Xinjiang's only comprehensive bonded area sees soaring trade

Aerial photo taken on Dec. 12, 2021 shows a view of an industrial park in Shache County of Kashgar, northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. (Xinhua/Ding Lei)

URUMQI, May 19 (Xinhua) -- The comprehensive bonded area in Kashgar Prefecture, the only one of its kind in the southern part of northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, posted robust trade growth in the first four months of 2022.

The trade volume in the zone, which handles bonded warehousing and processing, international transit, procurement and distribution and more, soared over 5.8-fold year on year to 3.77 billion yuan (about 558.3 million U.S. dollars) from January to April, said Urumqi Customs.

Ma Haitao, director of the zone's management committee, attributed the strong trade performance to the prosperity of cross-border e-commerce and the advantages of tariff reductions in the zone.

Starting operation in early 2015, the Kashgar comprehensive bonded area is Xinjiang's second such area.

The import and export volume of the four integrated bonded areas, namely, Kashgar, Alashankou, Horgos and Urumqi, surged by 126.7 percent year on year to 9.53 billion yuan, accounting for 18.3 percent of Xinjiang's total foreign trade in the four months.