Zhanjiang cuts red tape

Zhanjiang's drive to streamline administrative procedures over the past five years is bearing fruit, as more and more enterprises and residents gain benefits from the preferential policies and highly-efficient services.

Located at the intersection of Guangdong, Guangxi and Hainan provinces, Zhanjiang not only serves as the major channel of Southwest China to access the sea, but is also an important foreign trade port linking the country with Africa, Europe, Southeast Asia, Oceania and Middle East.

To further shorten the clearance time, Zhanjiang Customs has actively taken part in national customs clearance integration and promoted "self-declaration, self-pay" as a new mode to pay taxes, which puts the time-consuming process of examination behind the release of goods.

"The customs clearance procedures used to take a dozen minutes and even up to an hour. With the new tax payment mode, each declaration can be handled within seconds," said a manager from an import and export enterprise in Zhanjiang.

In collaboration with the Zhanjiang Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Zhanjiang Customs is also integrating Internet Plus into customs clearance procedures. Reputable enterprises are able to enjoy a seven-day-24-hour service by networking with the customs.

Benefitting from the interconnection, Baosteel Zhanjiang saves two hours for each customs clearance as well as logistics and labor fees amounting to 18 million yuan ($2.7 million) every year.

In an attempt to break down barriers between government organizations, Zhanjiang Municipal Office of the State Administration joined hands with the Taxation and Municipal Local Taxation Bureau and launched a first-of-its-kind joint service hall in the Guangdong province.

With 15 service windows covering nearly 300 areas of taxation, citizens now only have to wait 15 minutes on average and their transactions take around just two minutes to complete.

Furthermore, a public service platform has also taken form in 113 towns and 1,766 villages of Zhanjiang to solve "the last mile" problem by providing accessible services to local residents. Integrating all the grassroots organizations, it intends to bolster itself as a one-stop service platform complemented an online service system.

"Previously, residents had to rush between different departments to get things done. With the public service platform, all that stuff can be entrusted with staff members there, which saves both trouble and time," said a villager of Huguang town surnamed Chen.