HAIKOU, December 4. /TASS/. In 2020 the Yangpu Special Customs Zone on the west coast of Hainan has had a big impact in increasing the island's openness, even as the novel coronavirus pandemic continues, believe the Hainan Daily observers.
According to the journalists, over the past six months, after the General Program for the Development of Hainan's Free Trade Port was published on June 1, this modern port area has managed to make significant progress in the development of promising types of foreign economic activity. According to experts, in recent months, Yangpu has begun to play an increasingly significant role as an "international logistics hub in the field of land and sea transport."
According to the published statistics, from January to October inclusive, this special zone served the flow of goods weighing 46.6 million tonnes, showing an increase of 12.88% year on year. Moreover, the foreign trade turnover exceeded 25.9 million tonnes, an increase of 12.16%. Yangpu received and dispatched over 792,000 standard containers, which is 41% higher than in the same period in 2019. In addition, over ten months, the scale of refueling ships with fuel at a duty free rate increased by 3.7 times, to more than 85,000 tonnes.
Among the main achievements of the Yangpu administration, which the newspaper draws attention to, is the creation of the first direct transcontinental route in the field of container transport for Hainan. Thanks to that, the island will play a key role in the conducting regular deliveries of goods from South China to Australia and the countries of Oceania, as well as in the opposite direction.
At the same time, a new research base is being actively formed in Yangpu. A school of foreign languages has been established in the port, where teaching is carried out according to a special intensive program. In addition, in August, the Hainan authorities signed a cooperation agreement with the Bielefeld University of Applied Sciences (Germany), which became the first foreign university in China to open its branch to admit students for an independent foreign program.
Since June, this customs zone began to conduct the registration of foreign commercial ships. For several months, this service was used by about 20 tankers, bulk carriers and other sea vehicles.
Yangpu Special Customs Zone
Yangpu plays a key role in the development of China's transportation network. In 2019, the GDP of this economic region with more than 89,000 permanent residents exceeded 26 billion yuan ($ 3.7 billion). In accordance with the "Comprehensive plan for the formation of a new integrated sea and land corridor" of China's State Committee for Development and Reforms, by 2035 this port will become a key point for the distribution of trade flows from various regions of the country to Southeast Asia and Oceania, Europe and North America. It is expected that by 2025 Yangpu will become a major regional transport hub, through which up to 5 million containers per year will pass annually.