Xi'an boosts foreign trade, construction of FTZ

The Xi'an municipal bureau of commerce has rolled out a series of measures to boost foreign trade and the construction of the free trade zone in Xi'an – capital city of Northwest China's Shaanxi province – which are widely seen as having achieved impressive results.

This was announced at the Belt and Road construction and the China (Shaanxi) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) construction promotion conference, held on July 12.

The Shaanxi FTZ was established in 2017. In the five years since, it has focused on such key areas as trade and investment facilitation and business environment improvements. It has embarked on 520 innovation cases, of which 26 were approved by the State Council and 66 innovative achievements have been replicated and promoted elsewhere in the province.

From January to May this year, the city's foreign trade amounted to 182.76 billion yuan ($27.18 billion), a year-on-year increase of 10.5 percent, accounting for 92.8 percent of the province's total.

In the first half, Xi'an saw a year-on-year increase of 55 percent in cross-border e-commerce turnover to 6.57 billion yuan. The China-Europe Chang'an special freight train for cross-border e-commerce made a total of 89 trips, with two new routes opened.

The first Cainiao International Central Warehouse in Northwest China started operating in Xi'an during the period, while the China (Xi'an) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone Exhibition Center opened.

International passenger flights resumed operations on May 31 and the Xi'an Xianyang International Airport opened three all-cargo routes in the first half, with its air cargo and mail throughput reaching 91,000 metric tons.

In addition, the Xi'an municipal bureau of commerce organized for agriculture-related foreign trade enterprises to participate in an online China-Russian agricultural cooperation exchange to help them expand their businesses.

Moving forwards, plans are for the bureau to promote the high-quality development of the conference and exhibitions industry – giving play to the functional advantages of the Shaanxi FTZ and the Xi'an Comprehensive Bonded Zone – as well as to pursue technological and institutional innovations.