Qingdao, a major port city in China, ranks first nationwide for its port business environment. [Photo/WeChat account: qd12301]

Qingdao, a major port city in China, ranked first nationwide for its port business environment. This was announced at the 2023 Conference on Customs Clearance and Compliance Management, which was held on Dec 7.

The Top 10 Container Port Business Environment Evaluation, which focuses on trade port costs, efficiency, regulatory environment, business services, port informatization, and other supporting factors, has been conducted for five consecutive years. The evaluation is determined through online questionnaires, analysis of public data, and special investigations to calculate the corresponding star ratings. In 2019 and 2020, Qingdao ranked second in overall scores. After implementing star ratings in 2021, Qingdao ranked first in overall scores for two consecutive years and entered the 4-star category. This year, Qingdao maintained its first place and became the only city to receive a 4.5-star rating.

As an important port city in China, Qingdao has continuously optimized its port business environment this year, improving customs clearance efficiency and service quality to promote high-quality development of foreign trade. This year, Qingdao has launched a series of customs clearance facilitation reform measures, which have reduced the customs clearance cycle by 80 percent.

The busy Qingdao Port. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

In terms of promoting the construction of a digital port, Qingdao actively undertook the national smart port pilot task and obtained the status of a pilot project for China-Singapore single-window customs clearance logistics information sharing. The "Cloud Port Smart Inspection Platform" was optimized and improved to provide one-stop services for pre-inspections, inquiries, payments, and pick-up or departure.

To standardize port services, the advantages of industry associations were fully utilized to promote further improvement of competition rules, self-discipline conventions, and operational norms in container terminal associations, creating an open, transparent, and predictable port business environment.

Qingdao is an important port city in China. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]