A delegation of reporters paid a visit to Quanzhou Comprehensive Bonded Area in East China's Fujian province on April 15. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

A delegation of reporters visited Quanzhou Comprehensive Bonded Area in East China's Fujian province on April 15 to learn about how the area has promoted high-quality development.

Quanzhou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, formerly known as Quanzhou Export Processing Zone, was approved by the State Council in 2005. In 2016, it was upgraded into a comprehensive bonded zone, the only national-level special zone supervised by the customs authority in Quanzhou.

Over the past few years, it has duplicated successful examples of other free trade zones (FTZs) and explored its own path to high-quality development.

Quanzhou Comprehensive Bonded Area is the only national customs special supervision zone in Quanzhou, as well as a key platform to implement the national Belt and Road Initiative and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, according to Lin Qi, an official of the bonded area.

Local authorities said that to date, a total of 42 national and provincial innovative measures launched by other FTZs have been replicated and promoted in the area, such as the "internet plus bonded exhibition" model.

A number of supportive measures to promote the development of the aviation maintenance industry have been carried out in the area to boost the city's civil aviation sector. With strong support from the government, Quanzhou's domestic and foreign maintenance service industry has also reported strong growth, with its total customs declaration value reaching 2.9 billion yuan ($444.45 million) in 2020.

Authorities said that in addition to providing policy guidance and regulation to the imported wine industry, the area has also granted customs convenience to facilitate the wine industry and accelerate its development. The Quanzhou bonded area has currently grown into the city's largest import and distribution center for wine.

The cross-border e-commerce industry was also boosted in the area thanks to the launching of a special service window.

The area also cooperated with Alibaba Group to set up the e-commerce platform Lazada in November 2020, which is aimed at boosting e-commerce, as well as related trade and investment activities in the province.