On April 29, Yichang Comprehensive Bonded Zone held the entry ceremony of the first batch of projects, and 15 enterprises were qualified, marking the Zone turning from the stage of application for construction to the stage of development and operation. Zhou Ji, secretary of the Municipal Party Committee, issued “keys” to those qualified enterprises and had an inspection tour around as well. Besides, deputy secretary of the Municipal Party Committee and mayor Zhang Jiasheng addressed on the ceremony.

　　Li Yaxiong, general manager of Shanghai Hanlian Biotechnology Co., Ltd., and Xiong Tao, chairman of Angel Yeast Co., Ltd., made a speech as entrepreneur representatives. Chen Huixia, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and executive vice mayor, presided over the ceremony. Luo Lianfeng, member of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Party Committee and secretary-general of the Municipal Party Committee, attended the ceremony. Wang Yuancheng, vice mayor, secretary of the Party Work Committee and director of the Management Committee in Yichang High-tech Zone, introduced the information of Yichang Comprehensive Bonded Zone.

　　Zhou Ji visited Yintai project of seafood and meat processing from Dubai, UAE, Shanghai Hanlian Biological disinfectant project (annual production of 10000 tons), and Omar Electronic 5G communication materials project (annual production of 3 million square meters), to learn about their industrial layouts, equipment procurement, etc. He also thanked entrepreneurs for their contributions in the development of Yichang export-oriented economy. He reminded that with the uncertainty of continuous spread of the international epidemic, the recovery of global industrial chain and supply chain was facing new challenges. It was demanded that we should pay close attention to the changes of overseas epidemic, carefully sort out the key links in the industrial chain and supply chain, strengthen pre-research and judgement on situations and thus plan to take targeted measures in advance. As a customs special supervision area with the highest level of opening-up, the most preferential policies, the most complete functions and the most simplified procedures, the comprehensive bonded zone must well play the role of platform for opening-up to the outside world, support enterprises to make better use of international and domestic markets and resources, keep “six stabilities”, implement “six guarantees”, and promote high-quality economic development.

　　Zhang Jiasheng said that the municipal government will always support investors to make them feel at ease to start and develop businesses in Yichang. The Management Committee of Yichang Free Trade Zone should spare no effort to serve them to attract more high-quality enterprises and projects, building the Comprehensive Bonded Zone into a high-quality area with convenient investment and trade, sound service system, efficient and convenient supervision and standardized legal environment.

　　At present, Yichang Comprehensive Bonded Zone has 30 reserved projects, with a total investment of 8.4 billion yuan and a proposed plant area of 300,000 square meters. The first 15 projects involved a variety of new forms, including 11 bonded processing projects, 1 bonded R&D project, 3 bonded service projects, with a standard plant area of 150,000 square meters. After operation, the sales volume of the year can reach 10.2 billion yuan, the import and export volume can reach $1 billion. In addition, there are also a number of projects to be signed and negotiated, forming a situation of project landing, signing and reserving.

　　It is known that Yichang Comprehensive Bonded Zone was approved by the State Council on January 9 this year, also the first approved outside Wuhan in Hubei Province. Since the project started in June 2018, the application and construction of the Comprehensive Bonded Zone went hand in hand with investment attraction in order to ensure the early operation of the Zone. The city followed this road to carry out its plan and ensured the settlement of the first batch of projects soon after the application was approved, which has been given a nod by the General Administration of Customs. At present, 90% of the total construction has been completed, including 400,000 square meters of standard plant area, the podium buildings of the main building, inspection storehouses, passage check points, etc.

　　It is learned that the city will continue to focus on two pieces of major work: the operation and settlement of projects. All the work must be detailed and fulfilled so that the construction can be completed at the end of July, the pre-acceptance check can be applied then and conducted at the end of September, and the Zone will pass the formal acceptance check at the end of December. At the same time, we should guide the processing trade projects to gather in the Comprehensive Bonded Zone and strive to have more than 30 projects settled within the year, promoting the high-quality development of the export-oriented economy.(Reporter Lei Pengcheng)