Goods from the Chinese mainland passed quickly and smoothly between customs at each end of the Hong Kong-Zhuhai-Macao Bridge on Jan 17 under what is called the Single E-lock Scheme.

The DHL Express shipment then went to Hong Kong International Airport under the Intermodal Transshipment Facilitation Scheme. It consisted of 720,000 yuan ($106,230) of packaged products destined for foreign markets.

The Single E-lock consignment originated in Guangzhou. First, an electronic customs lock was applied in Guangzhou. Upon arrival, the lock was checked, and basic conditions confirmed by Gongbei Customs at the Zhuhai HZMB customs clearance point. Next, it was unlocked and the goods were confirmed at the exit border. Finally, the cargo was taken over the bridge to Hong Kong and expeditiously cleared by HZMB Hong Kong Port under the facilitation arrangement.

Single E-lock inspected [Photo by Yu Bo to Zhuhai Daily]

Single E-lock technology and GPS devices were utilized to monitor the goods during transport. Foreign products arriving in Hong Kong by air to be transshipped to the Chinese mainland by land are also subject to the Single E-lock procedure.

Guangdong and Hong Kong customs officials accept each other's truck-inspection results. Accordingly, clearance processing has been greatly streamlined to speed up cargo flow.

According to Wang Jingfei, deputy director of HZMB Customs, the advance examination of cargoes passing through bridge ports has been enabled by the Nationwide Customs Clearance Integration Program, paperless customs filing reform, and other measures.

Under normal circumstances, it now takes less than three minutes for a truck to be examined and fewer than 10 seconds for other vehicles.

According to statistics, 19,400 tons of goods valued at about 7 billion yuan ($1 billion) have passed customs clearance at the bridge port within two months, and there is a clear growth trend.

HZMB, the longest sea bridge in the world, opened to traffic on Oct 24. Travel time by roadway between Hong Kong and Zhuhai has been slashed from three hours to just 30 minutes.