Xinjiang draws inspiration from coastal FTZ practices

Northwest China's Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region could copy the successful practices of free trade zones (FTZs) in coastal regions to better perform its role as a gateway of opening-up in Northwest China, an expert said on Monday.

Over the weekend, local news site xjdaily.com reported that the autonomous region has achieved noticeable results in its efforts to replicate and utilize proven formulas of FTZs in coastal regions.

The Alashankou bonded zone simplified a declaration process for companies inside the zone on import and export papers and Urumqi Customs optimized its clearance process in 2017, trimming the time needed for imports and exports by 44.4 percent and 31.5 percent, respectively.

The results show the region aims to copy the experience of coastal regions in order to play a bigger role in the China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative. There are preparations being made for Xinjiang to apply to open an FTZ, experts said.

"By 2020, such learning should produce significant results as such experience is promoted across the region," it said in a guideline released in September.

Alashankou, Xinjiang's first integrated bonded zone, has copied and promoted 15 practices after sending study groups to the Shanghai FTZ.

Three improvements were involved in customs supervision such as making declarations in a collective fashion, and 12 were related to the quarantine process such as paperless documentation, according to a statement sent to the Global Times by the management office of the Alashankou bonded zone.

Of the 478 companies in the zone, more than 80 were newly registered in 2018, according to the statement.

The zone aims to expand its footprint in areas including imports, cross-border e-commerce and cargo train services, the statement said.

"The copying of valuable experience from coastal regions by Xinjiang, a starting point for China to reach out to Central Asia, West Asia and Europe, will help the area to transform its geographic advantage into economic strength," said Yan Zhou, deputy chief representative for East and Southeast Asia of IRU, a world road transport organization.

"The efforts will help Xinjiang to meet international trade and economic standards, and one example is the port of Khorgos being listed as one of the pilot inland ports under the TIR convention [an international road traffic facilitation treaty]," Zhou told the Global Times on Monday.

Sun Yuanxin, deputy director of the Research Institute for the Shanghai FTZ at the Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, said the FTZs in coastal areas already actively seek out foreign investment and follow the negative list approach in terms of investment scope, trade facilitation and the business environment.

A region such as Xinjiang "could combine the successful practices it learned from other FTZs with some of the preferential policies only enjoyed by several provinces in central and west China," Sun said,

Sun noted that companies investing in these provinces pay a lower business income tax.