(Reporter: Gao Wei and ,Xiong Donghua, Correspondent: Zhou Tingting)On April 1, China (Hubei) Pilot Free Trade Zone Yichang Area celebrated its first birthday.

　　Back to one year ago, Yichang Free Trade Area was officially listed. Here comes the celebrating message from the municipal government: "We hope this test field will bring about innovation flowers and yield down-to-the-earth fruits!"

　　Over the past year, columns were set up and beams were erected on this land tamped base covering an area of 27.97 square kilometers. We overcame various kinds of difficulties in order to plough the free trade test field deeply and innovatively, which helped bring up the new picture of high-quality development.

　　New mechanism as the "weather vane" of reform and innovation

　　Recently, Zhang Xinman, vice chairman of Hubei Wuhuan OUKE Manufacturing Technology Co. Ltd, took only 12 days to finish the approval of assessment, which used to take 38 working days. He says, “after the pilot investment project implements the new assessment mode of ‘evaluation in one + regional comprehensive assessment’, enterprises just need to go to one window to complete all evaluation items, avoiding the problems of coming to be evaluated many times and by many departments”.

　　At the end of November last year, the district simplified acceptance procedures for construction projects, and conducted a “multiple verification and integration in one” on-site survey of the Paris Chanson project in the urban area in accordance with the “required time, centralized organization, and one-time acceptance” mode. Yi Chunyu, the staff member, said, “It is much more convenient for project acceptance with the help of professionals”.

　　All this is just the epitome of the lowest cost, highest efficiency, and service-optimized business environment since the reform of the “distribution service” in the Yichang Free Trade Area. At present, the reform of “six ‘more’ in one” in the area take the lead in the province including “more audits, more reviews, more assessments, more certificates, more regulations and more managements”. Among these, the first industrial and commercial business license of “27 certificates in one” in the province is issued. It takes the lead in carrying out “joint transaction of 43 certificates”; "evaluation in one+ unified regional assessment" can help to save enterprises more than 20,000 yuan per acre on transaction costs and save over 30 working days.

　　Yichang Free Trade Area is also the first to launch the “general office window” examination and approval model in the province and it pioneers in launching the first “integration services” mode and comprehensively carrying out “one package service” working mechanism. Now, enterprises have settled in the Yichang Free Trade Area, and their registration time is reduced to within 2 working days, approval of construction projects application is compressed from 120 working days to 66, and the institutional transaction costs is greatly reduced.

　　At present, the reform of “streamlining administration, delegating powers and improving regulation and services” has had a noticeable impact in Yichang Free Trade Zone. The 165 reform tasks have been launched, 90 of which have been accomplished while the rest 75 are implementing in acceleration, and 56 independent innovation outcomes have been achieved including the fault tolerance mechanism on tax administration, the financial indemnity plus bank advance for corporate finance, and the rapid loan service for small and micro businesses.

　　Yichang has come up to a new pattern and become the bridgehead of opening-up in mainland China.

　　Having entered the new era of free trade, Yichang, taking the Three Gorges as its starting point for development, connects the east and west of China, and carries on special sense of time mission to serve the whole country for more achievements on two-way opening up.

　　Last year in November, the international freight train “Yichang-Wuhan- Hamburg” started from Yichang East Station, carrying mechanic and agriculture products of Yichang with the protection of Wuhan and European cold chain technology, traveled 13,000 kilometers for 19 days and finally arrived in Hamburg.Since then, the international freight train “Yichang-Wuhan- Hamburg” has begun to run once a week with about 20 additional containers every time.

　　“Made in Yichang” products to Hamburg through the international freight train saves more than 20 days compared with ocean shipping, while going to Moscow saves 30 more days than sea-land service. The international freight train “Yichang-Wuhan- Hamburg” has provided economical logistics services for Angel Yeast Co.,Ltd, Xiaoxihong (a Chinese brand), Allmed Medical Products Co.,Ltd and other established corporations.In the future, the international freight train “Yichang-Wuhan- Hamburg” will lead to UK, France, Poland and Czech Republic,etc, hoping to boom business and manufacturing.

　　Yichang connects countries along the Belt and Road Initiative through the “Yichang-Wuhan- Hamburg” railway, connects Shanghai through the Baiyang port and Yunchi Port, connects land ports of other cities through Three Gorges Logistics Park, and connects air ports at home and abroad through Yichang Sanxia Airport and Wuhan Tianhe International Airport. According to statistics of Bonded Logistics Center, the cargo value will reach 510 million RMB by the end of 2017. Meanwhile, Yichang Comprehensive Bonded Zone is increasing speed for declaration ...

　　Yichang is not only broadening “land silk road”, but also linking “maritime silk road” to support Yichang FTZ to be the bridgehead of opening-upin mainland. Doing so Yichang will turn a new page in international cooperation.

　　Nowadays, nearly100 international projects of CGGC areunder construction, covering 90% countries of The Belt and Road Initiative. Kelisheng Co.,Ltd has invested 10 billion RMB in The Gate of Orient FTZ of Kazakhstan for industrial park construction while Angel Yeast Co., Ltd has installed production line in Egypt which can produce 1,5000 tons of yeast per year.

　　New Energy: a Pivot of Industrial Restructure

　　Yichang FTZ has a very clear positioning since its founding, which is to develop high-tech industry and modern service industry.

　　In the past year, the added value of the high-tech industries in the zone has increased by 20%, accounting for 45% of GDP; the actual use of foreign capital has been doubled, taking up 25% of that of the city; the total value of foreign trade imports and exports is 1.27 billion yuan with a net increase of 1.3 times. Till the end of February, 1,743 new market players have been involved, which represents an increase of more than 30% on a yearly basis; 95 investment contract projects have signed, and the total investment has reached 35.3 billion yuan.

　　The key to such a success is the powerful promotion of the entity economy. As the first advanced enterprise certified by the Customs after the operation of the zone, the pianos named "Yangtze River" produced by Jinbao Musical Instruments are sold to more than 40 countries and regions with an annual import and export volume amounting to 172 million yuan. In addition, the industrial output value of a group of companies such as Huike Electronics, CSG Display Equipment, Black Whirlwind Saw Industry, and Golden Tobao has increased by more than 30%.

　　The key to such a success is the support of qualified projects. This year, the district has introduced the Human Resources Industrial Park project, which is expected to attract 50 human resources companies to enter and achieve an annual labor dispatch of more than 30,000 people. It is expected to become the most comprehensive human resources service market in the Three Gorges area. Meanwhile, a large number of service industry projects such as the Zhubajie Network Platform have taken root.

　　The key to such a success is also the strong safeguard of resource elements. Last year, five financial institutions were established in districts, achieving an operating income of 163 million yuan, a RMB loan balance of 3.225 billion yuan, and a cross-border RMB settlement of 1.369 billion yuan. In July of the last year, the district issued the “Ten Golden Rules” to recruit talents by establishing a pool of innovative and entrepreneurial funds of no less than 300 million yuan, thus granting a three-year talent allowance for doctors and masters who worked here, and giving the entrepreneurial teams a maximum of 5 million yuan to support projects to attract talents from all over the world.

　　The person in charge of the Yichang Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Administrative Committee said that reports of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to "give the Free Trade Pilot Zone more autonomy in reforms." In the future, the FTZ in Yichang will use Xi Jinping’s Socialist Ideology with Chinese Characteristics as a guide to deepen the reforms and the opening up. It will manage to create new high-tech industrial clusters and a new highland to open up through 3 to 5 years of hard work.