Zhuhai's Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone marked the beginning of its customs operations, on June 5, with the first batch of electronic products passing customs clearance via a container truck.

Officials of Gongbei Customs, on behalf of the General Administration of Customs, presented the Acceptance Certificate of the Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone to the Zhuhai Municipal People's Government on June 5. On that same day, the first batch of projects signed investment contracts with the Jinwan District Government to settle in the zone.

This comprehensive free trade zone has the most preferential policies and complete functions of all the special customs supervision areas in China.

Customs staff members inspect the vehicle as it waits to enter Zhuhai's Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone [Photo by Zhang Zhou / WeChat account: zhuhaifabu]

The Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone covers an area of 2.51 square kilometer (0.97 sq mile), and is located in the southwest part of Jinwan district. It passed joint inspections by seven ministries in February, including the General Administration of Customs and the National Development and Reform Commission. 

Infrastructure construction in the zone is now moving forward, while construction has finished in the 79,000-square-meter (20-acre) area designated for basic and supervision facilities. This completed area includes comprehensive service buildings, inspection platforms, supervision warehouses, and cold-chain inspection platforms.

The zone is only 2 kilometers (1 mile) away from Gaolan Port, 500 meters (547 yd) away from Gaolan Port Station of the Guangzhou-Zhuhai Railway, and 16 km (10 miles) away from Zhuhai (Jinwan) Airport. With the help of other transportation projects, such as the Huangmao Sea Channel, Jinwan Avenue Bridge, and Hezhou-Gaolan Port Expressway, the zone will be merged into the one-hour economic circle of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

The Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone will prioritize developing the bonded logistics, processing, and maintenance industries. The import and export volume of the zone is expected to exceed 5 billion yuan ($704 million) in 2025, 50 billion yuan ($7 billion) in 2030, and 100 billion yuan ($14 billion) in 2035

Currently, 16 projects with a total investment of around 4.5 billion yuan ($633.2 million) have signed contracts to settle in the zone. Upon operation, these projects will realize an annual output value of 4.9 billion yuan ($689.4 million) and an annual import and export volume of 12.8 billion yuan ($1.8 billion).

The Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Bonded Logistics Industrial Park, a 600,000-sq-m (23,722-sq-rd) industry 5.0 space project by Gree Group, has finished construction and is now able to provide high-quality services for enterprises that settle in the park.

The Gaolan Port Comprehensive Free Trade Zone is expected to devote more efforts to areas of investment attraction, operation, and management. It will strive to become a new highland for Zhuhai's opening-up and for further Zhuhai-Macao-Hong Kong cooperation.

Of note, Gongbei Customs plans to sign a memorandum of cooperation on the regional high-quality development of its special customs supervision areas. This will be done in order to promote cooperation in five areas, including optimizing layout, building core industrial clusters, and boosting the high-quality development of enterprises.