The construction of Lhasa Comprehensive Bonded Zone in Southwest China's Xizang Autonomous Region has passed the acceptance review by eight national departments including China’s top economic planner. The zone will actively promote the high-quality construction of China-proposed Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) while boosting foreign trade, China’s national broadcaster CCTV reported on Friday. 

The zone was approved for construction in April 2020 by the State Council, China’s cabinet. The bonded zone has major advantages with its location, as it is close to the Lhasa freight hub of the Qinghai-Xizang Railway and connects the Qinghai-Xizang Highway and the Sichuan-Xizang Highway, and it is only 40 kilometers away from the Lhasa Kongga International Airport. 

The pass of the bonded zone will inject new momentum into the development of Xizang’s foreign trade, which has filled the gap of the lack of a local special area supervised by the customs in Xizang. This area is the first of its kind in Xizang integrating multiple purposes including logistics and labor resources to support foreign trade. 

The free trade zone and its supporting areas have a total planning area of 4.88 square kilometers, with a sealed area of 0.84 square kilometers, according to CCTV. 

Official data showed that the total exports and imports of Xizang reached 4.02 billion yuan ($596 million) in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 88.3 percent, while the total trade value with the BRI countries and regions accounted for 1.98 billion yuan, up 38.4 percent. 

The completion and official operation of the comprehensive bonded zone will effectively promote the construction of the passageway connecting South Asia while effectively connecting with the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor, a trade and logistics passage jointly built by western Chinese region and Singapore.

China currently has 168 special customs supervision areas and 156 bonded zones. The total trade value of China’s comprehensive bonded zones mounted 5.9 trillion yuan in 2021, up 23.8 percent on a yearly basis, accounting for 15.1 percent of the nation’s total imports and exports and becoming a significant platform for promoting the country’s high-quality development of trade. 

Global Times