China Releases 12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Electronic Ports

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Aug. 8 – China’s State Council issued the “12th Five-Year Plan for the Development of Electronic Ports (guobanfa [2012] No.41, hereinafter referred to as ‘Plan’)” on July 27, aiming to accelerate the construction of electronic ports, improve the efficiency of port customs clearance, and promote the sound development of foreign trade and national economy.

The plan lays out the current situation of the development of electronic ports in China as well as sets out the key development objectives and main tasks for the 12th Five-Year Plan period.

Current Situation

During the 11th Five-Year Plan period, the construction of electronic ports underwent significant progress, specifically:

At the central-government level:

  • The Electronic Port Committee expanded to include 15 departments
  • The electronic port platforms have been connected to the major port management departments of 13 countries, 15 commercial banks, and to organizations such as the Trade and Industry Department of Hong Kong, Macao Economic Services, and European Commission Tax & Customs Directorate
  • 23 joint network applications have been developed
  • Approximately 664,000 enterprises have been included in the network
  • Over 1.3 million documents are processed daily

At the local-government level:

  • 35 electronic port platforms have been established in various regions
  • More than 600 integrated service projects with local characteristics, such as integrated logistics inquiry service, have been developed

Key development objectives by 2015:

  • Further optimize the infrastructure of the electronic ports
  • Further enrich the customs clearance, logistics, and commercial functions of the electronic port platforms
  • Improve the efficiency, orderliness and convenience of the customs clearance procedures for enterprises
  • Improve the comprehensive enforcement and service capacity of the ports
  • Preliminarily complete “one-stop window” projects with Chinese characteristics that meet international rules and general standards and adapted to the demands of economic and social development

Main tasks during the 12th Five-Year Plan period:

At the central-government level:

  • Establish an inter-department comprehensive information sharing database. This includes an integrated database that gathers information on annual inspection, cancellation and revocation, finance and operation status, records of violation, etc. that would facilitate joint supervision of import-export enterprises
  • Promote the construction of inter-department joint network projects that would strengthen tax levying administration, environmental pollution control and counterfeit certification prevention

The plan also has the following goals with respect to developing the supportive infrastructure for electronic ports:

  • Expand network coverage
  • Strengthen the platform supporting system
  • Strengthen information security
  • Explore the establishment of cloud service mechanism
  • Facilitate the establishment of an integrated customer service system for electronic ports

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