It was informed from Wuhan Customs on 8th December that General Administration of Customs, Ministry of Finance, State Administration of Taxation, and Administration of Foreign Exchange had formally approved Yichang Three Gorges Tariff-free Logistics Centre (Type B), which marked that the opening of Yichang elevated to the new level.

Tariff-free Logistics Centre (Type B) is approved by the customs, operated by an enterprise in China, a collectively supervised place by customs in which companies run tariff-free warehousing and logistics businesses, and an important platform to promote economic openness. After the completion of the project, it will integrate the functions of tariff-free warehouse and export supervision warehouse as basis and mainly provide services including tariff-free warehousing, simple processing and value-added service, export tax rebate, international logistics distribution, import and export trade, international transit and transit trade, and logistics information processing. It has great importance to accelerate modern logistics system construction, expand the openness of Yichang, promote export-oriented economy development in Yichang, Three Gorges area and western Hubei region, strengthen the competitiveness of the region and propel the construction of mega-city Yichang.

Yichang Three Gorges Tariff-free Logistic Centre is located in Xiaoting Industry Park in Yichang. The area covers 0.2 square kilometers, east to National Highway 318, south to Minfu Road, west to Xiling Road, and north to Minqiang Road. Logistics operating area, customs supervision and inspection area, trading office area, and service area are planned. Tariff-free logistics warehouse, customs inspection space, customs supervision warehouse and general services building will be built with planned 580 million yuan investment in total. The designed capacity for logistics operation is 1.6 million tons per year (capacity for warehousing is 0.8 million tons per year), and the total surface area is 73556 square metres.

It is said that five tariff-free logistics centres are approved at the same time, which are Chongqing Nanpeng Road, Chengdu Railway, Kunming Hi-tech, and Tengjun International Land Port. Yichang Three Gorges Tariff-free Logistic Centre is declared ahead of them and it has the largest area.

In order to seize the opportunity of development and openness of Yangtze River Economic Belt to take the lead in the openness of inland, based on the Yichang\'s economic and social development condition, municipal party committee and government launched the declaration of Yichang Three Gorges Tariff-free Logistic Centre project in December 2013 to accelerate the construction of the medium and platform for openness. Since the launch of the project,  municipal party committee and government have established a leading team, and municipal business bureau, Yichang Customs, Inspection and Quarantine Bureau of Yichang,andXiaoting District have collaborated closely. The leaders of municipal party committee and government have led the team to report to provincial party committee and government, and Customs Administration.

After the approval by Hubei provincial government on 20th November, 2014, according to the requirement of “municipal-level strategy and district-level implement”, and the orientation of “customs territory, the lead of openness, connecting the world, medium of innovation, trade convenience, fortune platform”, Xiaoting accelerated the construction. Since the launch of the project, the accumulated investment has reached 300 million yuan by this March, and the main body of the project, general building, and tariff-free warehouse has been completed.

Shi Xianyin, the party secretary of Xiaoting District said that as a government public function platform, the tariff-free logistics centre would not only benefit the enterprises in Yichang, but also attract the settlement of export enterprises in south-west Hubei and the regions around Three Gorges in the centre, to lower the cost at least 20%.

At present, instructed and helped by customs and business administrations, Three Gorges Tariff-free Logistic Centre is negotiating and inviting investment with the key import and export companies in Yichang, Jingzhou, Jingmen, and the regions around Three Gorges. The centre has reached agreement with over 60 companies.  (Correspondent Tang Shuitang, Lin Jingjing, Deng Tengfei)