Original Title: Implementation Opinions of the General Office of the People’s Government of Shandong Province on Strengthening Open-Door Policies to Drive High-Quality Development of Comprehensive Bonded Zones (Lu Zheng Ban Zi [2023] No. 172)

Municipal People’s Governments, Departments of the Provincial People’s Government, Directly Affiliated Agencies, and Relevant Departments:

To better leverage the policy advantages of comprehensive bonded zones, support the advancement of high-level opening-up across the province, and contribute to the development of a new open-economy system, the Provincial Government hereby issues the following implementation opinions on promoting the high-quality development of comprehensive bonded zones under the new circumstances.

I. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and earnestly carry out the deployment requirements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council regarding the innovative development of open platforms such as comprehensive bonded zones. We will focus on “taking the lead and breaking new ground,”we will deepen comprehensive reforms in comprehensive bonded zones, innovate regulatory models, strengthen technology-driven empowerment, enhance industrial clustering, and optimize the business environment. By balancing development and security, we will foster new competitive advantages characterized by coordinated platform development, integrated regional interaction, synergistic policy benefits, and rational spatial layout. We aim to build comprehensive bonded zones into a vital engine for the province’s high-level opening-up and high-quality development, thereby providing stronger support for serving and integrating into the new development paradigm.

II. Key Tasks

(1) Optimize Functional Layout. Strengthen coordinated planning and optimize spatial layout. Support comprehensive bonded zones in developing distinctive niche industries based on their actual conditions, forming a development pattern characterized by distinct features and complementary development. Encourage each comprehensive bonded zone to leverage regional resource endowments and distinctive industries to build industrial parks specializing in R&D innovation, trade in services, and other areas.Promote the optimization and integration of the Jinan Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the Jinan Zhangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone, as well as the Qingdao Qianwan Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the Qingdao West Coast Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Support eligible cities in applying to establish comprehensive bonded zones. (Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce, with cooperation from the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, the Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Qingdao Customs, and Jinan Customs)

(2) Promote Platform Synergy. Improve the benefit-sharing mechanism to advance the coordinated development of comprehensive bonded zones with new districts (national-level and provincial-level new districts) and development zones (economic development zones and high-tech industrial development zones). Deepen the integrated development of comprehensive bonded zones and pilot free trade zones, and strengthen the replication and promotion of institutional innovation achievements.Support the Jinan Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Qingdao Qianwan Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Qingdao Airport Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and Yantai Comprehensive Bonded Zone in innovating pathways for “zone-port linkage” and “zone-port integration,” fostering coordinated development with ports and conducting transshipment operations. (Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce; supported by the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Provincial Department of Transportation, Provincial Port Office, Qingdao Customs, and Jinan Customs)

(3) Promote the advancement of bonded processing toward mid-to-high-end sectors. Accelerate the development of bonded R&D and design, as well as bonded processing and manufacturing, and explore the development of specialized businesses such as high-end testing and maintenance, and high-end intelligent green remanufacturing. Promote the development of next-generation information technology in the Jinan Comprehensive Bonded Zone, consumer electronics in the Yantai Comprehensive Bonded Zone,virtual reality in the Weifang Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and general aviation R&D and manufacturing in the Qingdao Jimo Comprehensive Bonded Zone. Support the Jinan Zhangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Qingdao Jiaozhou Bay Comprehensive Bonded Zone, Yantai Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and Weifang Comprehensive Bonded Zone in focusing on their competitive industries—such as laser technology, specialized machinery, consumer electronics, and virtual reality—to undertake bonded maintenance operations, thereby transitioning from “global manufacturing” to “global services.”Support the inclusion of high-end petroleum equipment and power equipment from the Dongying Comprehensive Bonded Zone in the bonded maintenance product catalog. Support the Yantai Comprehensive Bonded Zone in expanding bonded remanufacturing operations for offshore engineering equipment. (Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce, with cooperation from the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, Provincial Department of Ecology and Environment, Qingdao Customs, and Jinan Customs)

(4) Expand bonded logistics functions. Building on the foundation of bulk commodity trade and logistics, actively expand businesses such as cold-chain logistics, supply chain management, and bonded futures delivery, and vigorously cultivate international transshipment and consolidation operations. Relying on the comprehensive bonded zones in cities such as Qingdao, Yantai, Weihai, and Rizhao, actively advance the construction of Northeast Asia International Trade Port and promote the integrated development of shipping, trade, and finance.Promote the “unloading and blending on-site” and “multi-country, multi-mineral” regulatory models, and support Yantai City in establishing a regional bonded mineral product blending center. Support the Weifang Comprehensive Bonded Zone in innovating the VMI (Vendor-Managed Inventory) model through core enterprises to build an international logistics distribution center. Support the Yantai Comprehensive Bonded Zone in establishing a new whole-vehicle import and export port at the Zhifu Bay area of Yantai Port.(Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce, with cooperation from the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Provincial Department of Transportation, the Provincial Port Office, the Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Supervisory Administration, the Qingdao Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Supervisory Administration, Qingdao Customs, and Jinan Customs)

(5) Promote the Quality and Scale of New Business Models. Actively develop new bonded service models such as cross-border e-commerce and bonded display and trading.Explore innovations in cross-border e-commerce retail imports, deepen the “bonded + new retail” reform in cross-border e-commerce, and develop new retail models such as “bonded warehouses + live streaming.” Support comprehensive bonded zones in cities including Qingdao, Zibo, Dongying, Weifang, Rizhao, and Linyi in fully leveraging the policy benefits of the Cross-Border E-Commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zones to promote high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce.Enhance the functions of the Weihai Comprehensive Bonded Zone’s all-mode cross-border e-commerce innovation industrial park to build an international commodity distribution hub that connects with Japan and South Korea and serves the entire country. Support the Qingdao Jimo Comprehensive Bonded Zone in conducting bonded training for aviation flight simulators and the Qingdao Airport Comprehensive Bonded Zone in conducting bonded training for large medical equipment, and support the Jinan Comprehensive Bonded Zone in conducting aviation leasing operations. Support the Jinan Zhangjin Comprehensive Bonded Zone and the Qingdao Qianwan Comprehensive Bonded Zone in exploring offshore trade and new forms of barter trade.(Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce, with cooperation from the Provincial Health Commission, Qingdao Customs, Jinan Customs, and the Provincial Postal Administration)

(6) Intensify efforts to attract projects. Treat investment promotion as the “top priority” for comprehensive bonded zones, further optimize the investment environment, and step up efforts to attract capital. In accordance with the *Guidelines for Projects Suitable for Comprehensive Bonded Zones*, actively attract projects suitable for the zones, such as processing and manufacturing, R&D and design, logistics distribution, testing and maintenance, and sales and services.Focusing on 11 flagship industrial chains, including next-generation information technology and high-end equipment, attract a batch of major industrial projects that integrate “bonded zones with manufacturing” to complement, extend, and strengthen these chains. Target key areas such as foreign trade, foreign investment, and emerging business models for precise investment promotion, and achieve new breakthroughs in attracting high-end, intelligent, and green projects.Encourage foreign investors to establish R&D centers in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone and implement corresponding support policies. (Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce, with cooperation from the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, and the Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology)

(7) Accelerate the commissioning and full operation of major projects. Firmly uphold the principle that “projects are paramount,” strengthen the role of major projects in supporting the development of comprehensive bonded zones, concentrate resources, implement support policies, and enhance full-chain, full-cycle service guarantees to accelerate the construction of key projects.Improve the efficiency of enterprise-related services, better leverage the role of the provincial platform for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment, and promptly resolve difficulties faced by enterprises. (Led by the Provincial Development and Reform Commission, with support from the Provincial Department of Science and Technology, Provincial Department of Industry and Information Technology, Provincial Department of Finance, Provincial Department of Natural Resources, Provincial Department of Commerce, Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Supervisory Administration, and Qingdao Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Supervisory Administration)

(8) Enhance trade facilitation. Implement classified and tiered management at entry points, establishing separate lanes for customs-declared goods and non-customs-declared goods, and enforce categorized access. For non-customs-declared goods, simplify the reporting requirements based on classification, optimize weight verification, and enable rapid entry into the zone; upon exit, apply standard regulatory oversight.Optimize the release logic of the Golden Customs Phase II system to support the consolidation and entry into the zone of “two-step declaration” goods with ordinary declaration goods. Allow “one bill of lading, multiple vehicles” shipments to be declared as a whole but delivered separately, with individual vehicles entering and exiting the zone. (Led by Qingdao Customs and Jinan Customs)

(9) Optimize supervision models. Select high-level certified warehousing and logistics enterprises within comprehensive bonded zones that have well-developed information systems. Promote the integration of warehouse management systems with customs networks, seamlessly embedding customs supervision into enterprises’ production and business operations, optimizing ledger management models, and strengthening in-process and post-event supervision.Strengthen the enterprise-centric management philosophy, optimize inspection ratios, enhance targeted manual analysis, and shift risk prevention and control measures to earlier and later stages of the process to reduce cargo interceptions at checkpoints, thereby improving regulatory efficiency and enhancing the sense of benefit for enterprises. Support the Weifang Comprehensive Bonded Zone and others in deepening reforms of processing trade supervision for enterprise groups, implementing holistic supervision of both on-zone and off-zone operations to enhance business convenience. Adopt a tolerant and prudent regulatory approach toward new business formats and models.(Led by Qingdao Customs and Jinan Customs)

(10) Optimize financial services. Support eligible domestic and foreign financial institutions in establishing branches within comprehensive bonded zones to provide financial services such as credit and financing guarantees in accordance with laws and regulations.Deepen the “government-bank-insurance” cooperation model, expand the coverage of export credit insurance, and strengthen policy support for export credit insurance in key industries. Seek to expand the pilot scope of the integrated RMB and foreign currency bank settlement account system, support enterprises in opening bank accounts with multi-currency settlement functions, and enhance the convenience of foreign trade and investment settlement. Actively explore offshore finance, accelerate the development of supply chain finance and trade finance, and conduct warehouse receipt pledge financing to alleviate enterprises’ financing difficulties.(Responsibility lies with the Shandong Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Supervisory Administration, the Qingdao Regulatory Bureau of the National Financial Supervisory Administration, the People’s Bank of China Shandong Branch, the Shandong Sub-bureau of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, and the Shandong Branch of China Export & Credit Insurance Corporation, in accordance with their respective duties)

(11) Strengthen the construction of supporting facilities. Support comprehensive bonded zones in establishing necessary production-related supporting service facilities, such as canteens, charging stations, and parking lots, as needed. Advance the development of smart comprehensive bonded zones, establish a public service platform covering all sectors and processes, and promote the aggregation, integration, and open sharing of various types of data among regulatory authorities, third-party institutions, and enterprises. (Led by the Provincial Big Data Bureau, Qingdao Customs, and Jinan Customs)

III. Support Measures

(12) Increase fiscal and tax support. Effectively coordinate and utilize central and provincial-level special funds for foreign trade and economic cooperation to support eligible enterprises in comprehensive bonded zones in expanding into international markets.Leverage the catalytic role of the Provincial Fund for the Transformation of New and Old Growth Drivers to support industrial development and project construction within comprehensive bonded zones. Support processing and manufacturing enterprises within the zones in utilizing surplus production capacity to undertake commissioned processing business from entities outside the zone but within the country. Implement the policy of selective tariff collection for goods sold domestically after leaving the zone, and ensure that enterprises within the zone may apply relevant tax policies in advance—such as those for the import of machinery and equipment for self-use—effective from the date the comprehensive bonded zone was approved by the State Council. Actively and prudently promote the pilot policy on general VAT taxpayer status to assist enterprises in selecting appropriate tax schemes.(Responsibility lies with the Provincial Department of Finance, the Provincial Department of Commerce, Qingdao Customs, Jinan Customs, the Provincial Tax Bureau, and the Qingdao Municipal Tax Bureau according to their respective duties)

(13) Deepen institutional and mechanism reforms. Promote the “Management Committee + Platform Company” operational model, strengthen the primary functions of platform companies in regional development, investment and financing, industrial promotion, and resource integration, and advance the use of government procurement of services for the operational management of comprehensive bonded zones. Facilitate personnel exchanges between comprehensive bonded zones and administrative and public institutions, broaden channels for attracting outstanding talent, and fully mobilize and stimulate the initiative and entrepreneurial spirit of all personnel within comprehensive bonded zones.(Led by the Organization Department of the Provincial Party Committee, the Provincial Party Committee’s Office of Institutional Reform, and the Provincial Department of Human Resources and Social Security)

(14) Improve the evaluation mechanism. Further solidify the orientation toward high-quality development and incentivize comprehensive bonded zones to demonstrate new achievements under the new circumstances. Based on the performance evaluation results of comprehensive bonded zones issued by the General Administration of Customs, strengthen the application of these results, improve positive incentive and negative constraint mechanisms, and link evaluation outcomes with policy and financial support. For those ranking in the bottom 20% province-wide, conduct interviews or issue notifications as appropriate. (Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce, Qingdao Customs, and Jinan Customs)

(15) Improve the implementation mechanism. Leverage the role of the Provincial Leading Group for Promoting High-Quality Development of Development Zones, refine the work promotion mechanism for high-quality development of comprehensive bonded zones, and reinforce the primary responsibility of local governments. Conduct timely evaluations of the implementation of these guidelines, summarize and promote exemplary practices, identify and address existing issues, and propose improvement measures. (Led by the Provincial Department of Commerce)

General Office of the People’s Government of Shandong Province

October 28, 2023

(This document is publicly released)