Regional comprehensive bonded area taking shape

China's capital city of Beijing and its neighboring Hebei province are working together to build a comprehensive bonded zone, with efforts made to promote coordinated development, joint investment attraction and the introduction of high-quality projects, local officials said.

Construction on the Beijing part of the bonded zone started in May 2020 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.

When finished, it is expected to be a world-class bonded area and also a new benchmark for the innovation and development of the global airport economy, said Luo Boming, deputy director of the management committee of the Daxing International Airport Economic Zone. The bonded zone is located inside the airport economic zone, which covers an area of 150 square kilometers, including 50 sq km of Beijing.

Situated on the boundary of Daxing district in Beijing and the city of Langfang in Hebei, Daxing airport is 46 km from Tian'anmen Square, 26 km from downtown Langfang, 55 km from Xiong'an New Area and 67 km from Beijing Capital International Airport.

The bonded zone is planned to cover a total area of 4.3 sq km, and the first phase, which is under construction, will cover an area of 2.1 sq km, with Beijing's Daxing and Hebei's Langfang each contributing almost half of the area.

The State Council approved the establishment of the bonded zone in November 2020 as a major project to push forward the coordinated development of Beijing and Hebei, and the integrated development of the airport and the city. It will also serve as the first special customs supervision area built in cross-provincial regions in China.

The bonded zone will be jointly managed and operated by Beijing, Hebei and Capital Airports Holding.

During the process, they will implement the requirements of "unified leadership, planning, standards, control and assessment", and aim to pioneer new models of a regional coordination mechanism and policy innovation, local officials said.

Key industrial projects such as intelligent logistics, cross-border e-commerce and digital trade will be encouraged to settle in the zone.

Also, new business models of combining bonded services with research, maintenance and exhibition will be cultivated.

When operational, the bonded zone will take international trade as its pillar industry, and will be supported by modern logistics and service trade sectors.

It is expected to become a new engine of export-oriented economic development, as well as an important base to improve the opening-up of Beijing's services and a distribution platform for high-end consumer goods and cutting-edge products in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, according to the Daxing district government.