Smooth-running Trains and Soaring Foreign Trade-Inner Mongolia's Northward Opening-up Achieved Significant Results

 

 

At present, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region is striving to build itself into an important bridgehead for China's opening up to the north. By virtue of its geographical advantages adjacent to Russia and Mongolia, it focuses on high-level opening up and has taken various measures to ensure the smooth passage of China-Europe Railway Express (CRE) trains and steady growth in foreign trade. In 2023, the number of CRE trains traveling across Inner Mongolia hit a new high. The foreign trade freight volume in Inner Mongolia exceeded 100 million tons for the first time, and the total import and export value reached RMB 196.53 billion, both breaking historical records.

China-Europe Railway Express runs smoothly

Two of the three main corridors (east, central and west) of China-Europe Railway Express pass through Inner Mongolia. Erenhot and Manzhouli are important ports for entry and exit of the middle corridor and east corridor of China-Europe Railway Express respectively. In 2023, the number of CRE trains passing through Erenhot and Manzhouli was 3,294 and 5,001 respectively, seeing 30.8% and 3% year-on-year separately.

At present, the number of train routes running through Erenhot Port has increased from 2 to 70, reaching 12 countries and regions and radiating 77 cities in China. There are 21 CRE train routes crossing the Chinese border via Manzhouli Port, reaching 13 countries and regions and radiating 60 cities in China.

 

 

A CRE train loaded with goods passes through the border gate of Erenhot

 

 

In recent years, the proportion of high value-added and high-tech products such as new energy vehicles and accessories, high-end machinery and equipment in the goods transported by CRE trains has increased significantly. The export of domestic automobile brands has developed from a new business form to a new normal. There are more than 10 domestic automobile brands exported from Erenhot Port. Meanwhile, the export of domestic intelligent household appliances grew rapidly.

In order to ensure the smooth passage of CRE trains, all departments in Inner Mongolia have worked closely together to continuously shorten the customs clearance time through infrastructure upgrading, cross-departmental information sharing and electronic operation.

At Erenhot Railway Port, Xie Kun, a staff member of China Railway Hohhot Group Co., Ltd., said that since 2022, the capacity expansion and transformation of Erenhot Railway Port has been completed, and the number of broad-gauge and standard-gauge train reception and departure lines has increased to 30, which can improve the receiving capacity by 20%.

Wei Wei, deputy head of the second team on duty at Erenhot Entry-Exit Frontier Inspection Station of Inner Mongolia General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier Inspection, said that at present, there are 9 to 10 CRE trains crossing the border at Erenhot Railway Port every day, and frontier inspection staff are on duty 24 hours a day, providing "all-weather and zero waiting" customs clearance services.

At Manzhouli Railway Port, Ma Rutie, the station manager on duty of the second shift of the operation workshop, said that he led the team to dynamically grasp the train operation information, shorten the shift handover time, add standby transshipment lines, improve the shunting efficiency in all links and ensure the smooth transportation of CRE trains.

Wang Yuan, Deputy Chief of the Customs Inspection Division II at Manzhouli Station, said that in the past, when the customs exercised control and supervision over CRE trains, a lot of data needed to be learned from enterprises and customs at the place of departure. During inspection, customs officers had to board the train for verification. Now customs officers can check the information of inspected goods in real time on the operation terminal, and the means of transport and manifest information transmitted by the railway sector can be automatically processed, shortening the operation time from nearly 6 hours to 5 minutes.

Fan Lijun, director of the "Belt and Road" Research Institute of Inner Mongolia Academy of Social Sciences, said that the CRE trains running through Erenhot and Manzhouli ports in Inner Mongolia have shortened the distance between eastern and southern provinces/autonomous regions/municipalities in China to Russia, Mongolia and other countries. It has also accelerated the speed of European commodities traveling eastward and southward to China, contributing to China's opening up to the north.

The scale of foreign trade hit a new high

Inner Mongolia's total import and export value of foreign trade amounted to RMB 196.53 billion in 2023, up 30.4% year-on-year, hitting a record high. Among them, the total import and export volume of private enterprises accounted for 75.9%, which is 5.7 percentage points higher than the same period last year.

Wang Hua, Deputy Director of Hohhot Customs, said that Inner Mongolia's foreign trade shows strong resilience and great potential. In December 2023, a survey of regional key enterprises as per the trade climate index showed that 90% of them were optimistic about their future import and export.

Inner Mongolia has taken multiple measures to promote the high-quality development of foreign trade, including increasing policy support, optimizing the business environment for foreign trade, focusing on cultivating new formats and models of foreign trade, and deepening international economic and trade cooperation. Among them, Hohhot Customs innovatively launched the AEO Advanced Certification Incubation Library, actively publicized facilitation measures, and formulated a "customized" cultivation plan to help enterprises solve problems. In 2023, a total of 27 enterprises in Inner Mongolia obtained customs AEO certification, and their imports and exports accounted for more than 20% of the total trade volume.

AEO means "authorized economic operator". After obtaining the certification qualification, enterprises will not only enjoy lower inspection rate and priority customs clearance treatment in countries and regions that have realized AEO mutual recognition with China, but also be eligible for 28 facilitation measures such as reduced audit frequency, priority in port inspection and territorial inspection.

Zhang Hongying, Business Manager of the International Trade Department of Inner Mongolia Erdos Electric Power Metallurgical Group Co., Ltd., said: "Enterprises can not only enjoy more convenient customs clearance with this 'VIP Card', but also improve their management level and quality, thus gaining advantages in international market competition."

Inner Mongolia has actively developed new formats and models of foreign trade, among which the fair among the inhabitants of the border areas experienced steady and fast growth in 2023. In the border trade zone in Erenhot, a building is being transformed into a large wholesale supermarket. According to Ye Siyang, general manager of Erenhot Yongsheng Investment Co., Ltd., last year the Company reached an agreement with an enterprise in Mongolia which will open a wholesale supermarket in the border trade zone. After completion, registered border residents can directly wholesale goods for sale or self-use.

The border trade zone in Erenhot was officially put into operation in 2017. Registered border residents who import commodities from neighboring countries through barter trade with a daily value of less than RMB 8,000 per person can be exempted from import tariffs and import linkage taxes. In 2023, the border trade zone in Erenhot imported 199 batches of goods totaling 2,145.5 tons, with a value of about RMB 320 million and benefited more than 45,000 border residents.

Inner Mongolia has continuously deepened international economic and trade cooperation, actively carried out the "Mongolian Merchants' Silk Road Tour" overseas economic and trade activities, organized enterprises to carry out economic and trade exchanges in 20 countries and regions such as the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Mongolia and Russia, and reached trade and investment cooperation agreements with a total amount of more than RMB 33.2 billion.

Zhang Chunhong, deputy general manager of Inner Mongolia Kind Wanjia Foods Co., Ltd. who participated in the "Mongolian Merchants' Silk Road Tour" overseas economic and trade activities, said: "The government leads us to actively explore overseas markets, develop new trading channels, increase credibility endorsement for enterprises to expand markets, and help us create more new development areas."

Freight volume exceeded 100 million tons for the first time

In 2023, the port freight volume of Inner Mongolia exceeded 100 million tons for the first time in history, showing its achievements in port infrastructure expansion and transformation, customs clearance mode innovation and intelligent port development.

Cao Junpei, deputy director of Inner Mongolia Port Management Office, introduced that in terms of port infrastructure construction, Inner Mongolia has focused on supporting the construction and intelligent transformation of comprehensive hub ports such as Manzhouli and Erenhot, and accelerating the capacity expansion and transformation of key professional ports such as Gants Mod, Ceke and Mandula. The capacity expansion and renovation project of Erenhot Station on Tsining-Erenhot railway, the special channel for mineral products at highway ports and the container lifting yard have been completed and put into use successively, which has improved the customs clearance capacity and freight efficiency of ports.

In terms of customs clearance mode, in 2023, Inner Mongolia promoted the full resumption of freight functions at ports, improved the guarantee mechanism for delayed customs clearance during peak hours, emergency customs clearance on weekends and "Green Channel" for important materials, and facilitated the trial implementation of 24-hour freight customs clearance system at Manzhouli Port and Erenhot Port. These measures have effectively improved the efficiency of customs clearance and shortened the time for goods clearance.

In the Fruit, Vegetable, Grain and Oil Import and Export Park in Erenhot City, more than a dozen container trucks loaded with fresh vegetables and fruits are queuing up to leave the country. These vegetables and fruits, including tomatoes, onions, oilseed rape and apples, will be sold to Ulaanbaatar in Mongolia.

Zhao Long, head of the Park, said that the fruits and vegetables exported by the Park are very popular, and the export volume in 2023 witnessed a new high in nearly three years. "With the optimization of customs clearance measures and the opening of the 'Green Channel' for China-Mongolia agricultural products, it used to take nearly one day from going through customs procedures to exiting the country. Now it can be completed in one or two hours." he said.

The growth of port cargo throughput is also inseparable from Inner Mongolia's efforts to innovate customs clearance modes, strengthen technological empowerment and promote the construction of smart ports. At Gants Mod Port, the highway port with the largest freight volume between China and Mongolia, several orange AGV driverless vehicles carrying large containers are moving on the ice and snow, while trucks fully loaded with coal imported from Mongolia are passing through "intelligent checkpoints" quickly.

Xu Hailong, Chief of the Supervision Division I of Urad Customs, recalled: "When I first joined the office in 2009, we took a small iron bar and knocked on the tires one by one every day to identify objects according to the sound to combat smuggling, or tied a mirror to a long wooden stick to sweep "mines" under the chassis. The inspection of vehicles entering or leaving the country is done manually, and the license plate numbers are copied by hand. In addition, we have to climb onto trailers, uncover tarpaulins and use shovels for digging."

Now, the Gants Mod Port has launched a "Single Window" for international trade to handle import and export business online. Foreign trade enterprises do not need to queue up at the customs declaration hall with paper documents, but can go through customs without leaving home. Instead of manual inspection, vehicles are scanned by equipment to generate images. Smuggling can be detected through intelligent image review in the background, realizing non-intrusive and silent supervision.

Shang Guimin, Director of Urad Customs, said: "Next, the port will launch the special channel for AGV unmanned vehicles and the railway connection project at bilateral ports, and we also have an idea to build intelligent air tracks. With the opening of "highway-railway combined transport" and "multimodal transport", customs clearance will see a leap in volume."

Guo Zhouming, Deputy Director-General of the Department of Commerce of Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said that in the next step, Inner Mongolia will focus on comprehensively improving its function as a bridgehead, vigorously developing pan-port economy, perfecting the multimodal collection and distribution system, expanding foreign trade and investment cooperation, strengthening the support for open economic development, and deepening international people-to-people exchanges and cooperation, so as to promote the construction of a new pattern of all-round opening up with a larger scope, wider fields and deeper levels.

 

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