Source: People's Daily Online Author: Ouyang Jie Luo Shanshan July 31, 2024 09:06:01
On July 30th, the State Council Information Office held a series of themed press conferences on "Promoting High Quality Development", inviting Zhao Zenglian, Deputy Director General of the General Administration of Customs, Lv Daliang, spokesperson and Director of the Statistical Analysis Department of the General Administration of Customs, and Lin Shaobin, head of the Comprehensive Business Department of the General Administration of Customs, to introduce the situation.
Firmly safeguard the bottom line of national security
Zhao Zenglian introduced that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, the customs have been striving to write a new chapter of high-quality development.
Defend the country's borders, firmly safeguard the bottom line of national security, and provide strong guarantees for achieving high-quality development.
We will resolutely safeguard the lives, health, and safety of the people, strictly observe the first line of defense for port health and quarantine, and strictly control the inspection of imported food products. In the first half of the year, customs across the country detected 29000 cases of various infectious diseases and more than 30000 batches of unqualified food products. Resolutely safeguarding the biosecurity of the country's borders and preventing the invasion of alien species, in the first half of the year, customs across the country intercepted a total of 37000 species of quarantine harmful organisms. Resolutely safeguard the political, economic, and comprehensive security of ports, strengthen port supervision, enhance comprehensive taxation, and maintain a high-pressure situation in cracking down on smuggling.
To promote development, continuously reform and improve the customs supervision system and mechanism, enhance regulatory efficiency and service level, and contribute customs wisdom and strength to achieve high-quality development.
Efforts have been made to strengthen the high-quality supply of customs policies and measures. In recent years, a total of 9 out of 209 measures have been introduced to help enterprises overcome difficulties and promote stable growth in foreign trade, and 12 out of 227 policy measures have been introduced to support regional coordinated development. Efforts will be made to build a high-level platform for opening up to the outside world, continuously strengthen the innovation of customs supervision systems in comprehensive bonded zones and pilot free trade zones, and vigorously support the construction of new highlands for opening up to the outside world, such as Hainan Free Trade Port, Hengqin Guangdong Macao Deep Cooperation Zone, and Shanghai Oriental Hub International Business Cooperation Zone.
Foreign trade continues to improve with a solid foundation
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's foreign trade has grown at an average annual rate of 1.6 trillion yuan, equivalent to the total annual import and export volume of a medium-sized country. Zhao Zenglian said that China's total trade in goods has ranked first in the world for seven consecutive years and has become a major trading partner for more than 150 countries and regions. Currently, the number of foreign trade enterprises has nearly doubled compared to 2012. Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's foreign trade has become larger in scale, better in structure, and more dynamic.
Regarding the development of cross-border e-commerce, Lv Daliang introduced that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has successively introduced a series of policy measures, including establishing comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce, improving and expanding the positive list of cross-border e-commerce retail imports, continuously innovating cross-border e-commerce customs clearance supervision, etc., which has promoted the acceleration of China's cross-border e-commerce. According to customs statistics, China's cross-border e-commerce imports and exports will increase by 1.2 times in 2023 compared to 2018; Preliminary estimates show that imports and exports in the first half of this year amounted to 122 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%. Currently, the customs supervise over 7 billion cross-border e-commerce and mail parcels annually, with an average of around 20 million parcels per day.
Proactively expanding imports, China has been ranked as the world's second largest importer for several consecutive years. Lv Daliang stated that since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has implemented a policy of expanding imports and taken a series of measures to actively expand imports. According to customs statistics, China has achieved outstanding results in expanding imports. The overall scale of imports in China has increased from 11.49 trillion yuan in 2012 to 17.99 trillion yuan in 2023.
The construction of smart customs is fully underway
Reform has always been present throughout the entire process of customs work, "Zhao Zenglian introduced. Reform has continuously empowered and increased efficiency in customs supervision and clearance, and has basically achieved the reform goal of" being able to control, release, and pass customs quickly "for goods, items, postal parcels, and personnel entering and leaving the country for quarantine and clearance.
Building a smart customs is an important lever for further promoting customs reform. At present, the construction of smart customs has been fully launched and has achieved certain results, "Lin Shaobin summarized the achievements of smart customs construction with three keywords:" safety, convenience, and efficiency.
Security "means using big data as a support and intelligent equipment to build a" smart Great Wall "for national security. Accurately prevent and resolve risks, such as using "intelligent image review" technology in machine inspection and testing operations to accurately identify risks such as discrepancies in import and export orders and hidden goods, effectively detecting the invasion of foreign species such as "exotic pets" entering the country.
Convenience "means continuously optimizing customs business processes, implementing timely supervision, and maximizing the convenience of cross-border movement of personnel and goods. For example, promoting "smart travel inspection" by applying new equipment such as integrated intelligent channels, advanced machine inspections, and collaborative robots, allowing passengers to experience the convenience of "seamless customs clearance".
Efficient "refers to the widespread application of new technologies and intelligent equipment, effectively improving the efficiency of customs operations such as risk identification, regulatory inspections, and enterprise related services. For example, implementing "intelligent non-invasive monitoring" to ensure that imported and exported goods pass through the ship during loading, unloading, or transportation, achieving "instant inspection upon passing".
Lin Shaobin stated that in the next step, the customs will focus on process optimization, information exchange, and system integration, and strive to accelerate the construction progress of smart customs, aiming to establish the basic framework of smart customs by 2026 and form a complete system of smart customs by 2029.