On June 1, it waslearned from the municipallogistics industry development centrethat, to further reduce the cost and improve efficiency, and to optimize the logistics business environment, the citygovernment issued “Measures takenby Yichang to reduce logistics cost and tosupport logistics industry development” (hereinafter referred to as the Measures)the other day. The 18 strong measurescover costs on combined transportation, operation, component, integration and system, aiming tosupport the high-quality development of the city’s modern logistics industry.

　　Giving realisticsupport

　　As aninformation exchange channel between different modes of transportation, the“one waybillsystem” can effectively concatenate those multi-modal transport “breakpoints”. It clearly states in the Measures that, to vigorously promote the systeminYichang, a one-time reward of 500,000 yuan will be given to totallogistics supply chain companies with an annual turnover of more than 10 million yuan, and a lower freight rate to eligible railway containers.

　　To make betteruse of the Yangtze River waterway and to develop the waterwaytransport economy, according to the Measures, combinedrailway and waterway transportation by containers will be subsidized 1000 yuan per standard box, and 3000 yuan per one-way voyage for pendulum-type transportation at Baiyang Port. For a long time, small and medium-sized logistics enterprises that need working capital most, find itdifficult to obtain financing because of theirfew fixed assets and limited collateral. The Measures encourages logistics enterprises to expanse financing channels by persuading financial institutions and insurance companies to provide financing and guarantee supportwhile trying to obtainthe central budget investment and local government special debt,and actively promotes the “Credit Easy” mode to make it cheaper and easier for logistics enterprises to be financed.

　　In addition, the Measuresis meant to vigorously build a high-quality logistics business environment for enterprises by fillingthe policy gapand byhelpingsmall and medium-sized enterprises absorb fresh college graduates and network freight platforms and other aspects with the corresponding financial incentives.

　　Removing obstacles and reducing fees

　　In order to meet the fervent expectation of enterprisesand the public, the Measures takestax and fee reductionas the startingpoint to reduce the burden of logistics enterprises.

　　The Measures practicallyhelps to reduce factor cost of logistics enterprisesby making full use of thenational and provincial preferential policies including the time-varyingelectricity price policy and the equal electricity price for the rural cold-chain storage facilities tothat of agricultural production.

　　It focuseson enterpriseaccess, transport and other operational links, and encouragesnew energy vehicles to be on road through the implementation of the exemption of new energy vehicles purchase tax policy. The time limit for the exemption of container yard charges will be extended toreduce the storage costs of production enterprises and to increase the utilization rate of port resources.

　　By clearly reducingthe administrative examination and approval procedures, the Measures not only pushes towards electronic qualification certification in the transport industry to make it easier for enterprises to startbusiness, but also promotes the realizationof completing examination and approval procedures within one day in Yichang bythe optimization of largecargotransport licensing services, so that business licensing won’t be time-consuming and the logistics business environment isoptimized indeed. (By Jie Xingwei, Zhu Jie)