Hengqin has implemented the "separate management" policy for a full month, and more than 140,000 passengers have efficiently cleared customs through the "New Home" channel
Opening of ports opens a new door for integration between Qin and Macao
In the early morning of April 1, the Hengqin Port was brightly lit again.
With the successful completion of the handover work by the relevant departments of Guangdong and Macao, the reserved space for the extension of the Macao Light Rail to Hengqin Port has been officially handed over to the Macao Special Administrative Region for use and will be governed in accordance with the laws of the Macao SAR. Since then, the Macao port area of Hengqin Port and related extended areas have all been transferred to the jurisdiction of Macao.
A month ago, also at the Hengqin Port, the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "Cooperation Zone") announced the official implementation of separate line management and customs closure operations, and the integration process between Qin and Macao continues to accelerate.
Hengqin and Macau are within easy reach. Hengqin Port is the only entry-exit channel in the cooperation zone connecting Hengqin and Macao. The Lotus Bridge connects the two ends, absorbs the flow of people and vehicles from the Hengqin Port, and builds a channel for exchanges between the two places.
Today, a series of changes are quietly taking place. The Macau Light Rail Hengqin Line is about to be put into operation. 30 one-stop lanes for passenger and freight cars are fully opened. The travel inspection hall is equipped with "frequent flyer" and "new home" channels... At the Hengqin Port, the door to exchanges and integration between Qin and Macao is opening wider and wider. open. Through the window of Hengqin, people are seeing a more open Greater Bay Area.
New changes to "Portal"
All port areas under the jurisdiction of Macao have been transferred
On the track, a test train is heading from the Macau SAR to the Hengqin Line. At present, the civil engineering and train system engineering of the Macau Light Rail Extension Hengqin Line Project have been basically completed, and equipment debugging is currently underway. It is reported that the main building of the Macau Light Rail Extension Hengqin Line consists of a viaduct, a river tunnel and two stations, with a total length of approximately 2.2 kilometers. It will help Qin and Macao integrate into the "one-hour living circle" of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
According to the relevant person in charge of the Public Construction Bureau of the Macau Special Administrative Region Government: "After the reserved space for the extension of the Macau Light Rail to Hengqin Port is transferred to Macau's jurisdiction, it will not only facilitate the construction management of the entire project, but also solve the problem that the project scope spans the two places. And there is the problem of failing to obtain the license for the use of specific equipment." At the same time, the electromechanical equipment and train system linkage testing work on the entire line has been carried out, creating conditions for the opening within this year to facilitate the travel of Macao residents and tourists.
The authorization to transfer part of the Hengqin Port space to the jurisdiction of Macao is the first time nationwide that the approach of "one authorization and the application of Macao legal jurisdiction in stages" has been adopted nationwide. Back in 2019, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress authorized the Macao Special Administrative Region to exercise jurisdiction over the Macao Port Area of Hengqin Port and related extension areas, including the Macao Port Area of Hengqin Port, the Lotus Bridge and the passage bridge connecting the University of Macau to Hengqin Port. part (except bridge piers), and the reserved space for the extension of the Macau Light Rail to Hengqin Port.
Previously, the first-stage travel inspection building and related extension areas, and the second-stage passenger and truck inspection area (excluding the passage bridge connecting the University of Macau and the Hengqin Port) were handed over to Macau management on March 18, 2020, and April 20, 2023 respectively. . "The innovative reform of the legal authorization and customs clearance supervision of the Hengqin Port is a landmark project to promote the in-depth cooperation between Guangdong and Macao and the integration of Hengqin and Macao." Wang Yan, deputy director of the Legal Affairs Bureau of the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone, said: "This smooth operation The port area transferred to the management of Macao is the extension of the Macao light rail to the Hengqin Port area in the third phase, marking the completion of the transfer of the port area under the jurisdiction of the Macao Special Administrative Region authorized by the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress. It also means the reform, innovation and reform of the cooperation zone. A solid step towards deeper opening-up."
Updates from the "front-line" Hengqin Port are still coming. On March 18, the second phase of the Hengqin Port project officially opened 30 lanes for passenger and truck joint one-stop lanes, including 12 lanes for trucks and 18 lanes for passenger cars. The innovative inspection model of "cooperative inspection and one-time release" was implemented to achieve Entry and exit vehicles are queued up once and released once, with a designed daily customs clearance volume of 16,000 vehicles.
According to the plan, the on-board personnel inspection and release hall for passenger and truck passages at Hengqin Port will also be opened soon. Passengers will clear customs through the new self-service channel of the inspection and release hall. After passing the inspection, they will go to the boarding area to wait for boarding, without going around the travel inspection hall. This means that the second phase of the Hengqin Port project is about to be completed, and the customs clearance efficiency of "front-line" port vehicles and vehicle personnel will be significantly improved.
New experience of customs clearance
The average clearance speed for passenger and truck lanes is about 100 seconds
With the implementation of various convenience policies in the cooperation zone, more and more Macao residents choose to live and work in the cooperation zone. On the side of the Haojiang River, the 24-hour "open" Hengqin Port continues to ensure a "zero time difference" cross-border living experience between Hengqin and Macao.
Macau resident Cai Mingze told reporters that he currently works in Hengqin and travels between Hengqin and Macau every day. After the opening of the one-stop lane for passenger and truck vehicles, you only need to go through customs once, which is much more convenient, just like working in Macau. Ms. Chen, a Macau resident living in Hengqin, also praised the convenience and speed of the new lane. “It used to take more than ten minutes to cross the border in the old lane if there was a car, and we had to stop twice to go through the border twice. Now the procedures have been simplified. It’s a lot, just a few minutes.”
"Currently, the average clearance speed of vehicles passing through the one-stop joint passenger and truck lane is about 100 seconds, and the overall vehicle traffic efficiency has increased by about 40%." Zeng Xiang, deputy director of Hengqin Station of Zhuhai Immigration Inspection Station, said that compared with the traditional "two places" Compared with the "two inspections" inspection model, this model has completely changed the problem of transit personnel transferring back and forth by shuttle bus. With one-time queuing, centralized collection, and coordinated release, Hengqin Port has become the only new port in the country that implements the "cooperative inspection, one-time release" inspection system for both passengers and vehicles.
With the release of dividends from the branch line management policy, the "front line" of goods liberalization, and the continuous upgrade of software and hardware at the Hengqin Port, more Macao residents who study, work, start businesses, and live in the cooperation zone will feel that life is more similar to Macao. environment. Walking into the travel inspection hall of Hengqin Port, many Macau residents carried cooked food and pets and entered the country smoothly in a convenient customs clearance environment.
"After the customs closure under separate line management, we tried to bring egg tarts, barbecued pork, fruits, etc. bought in Macau to Hengqin. As long as we simply declared it on the mobile app, and accepted customs inspection as required when crossing the border, we brought it over smoothly. , it feels very convenient." Mr. Feng, a resident of Hengqin's "Macao New Neighborhood" said that Hengqin Port currently has various innovative one-time inspection modes. When going to and from Qin'ao and passing through customs, you no longer have to put down your luggage and items for inspection repeatedly, which improves customs clearance efficiency. Significantly improved.
Gongbei Customs statistics show that since the official implementation of line management in the cooperation zone, as of 24:00 on March 31, there have been approximately 1.759 million inbound and outbound passengers passing through Hengqin Port, a year-on-year increase of 35%, of which more than 140,000 have passed through Hengqin Port as a "new "Homeland" convenient channel for efficient customs clearance; about 2,500 Macao residents have been reviewed and applied for the "white list" preferential policy, and a total of nearly 800 batches of related animal and plant products have been registered; more than 178,000 entry and exit vehicles, including more than 118,000 single-plate vehicles Vehicle times.
Smooth customs clearance, sufficient popularity, and prosperous business. The tax department of the cooperation zone stated that in the past month, bonded goods entering the cooperation zone through the "first line" have been smoothly cleared, and goods entering the cooperation zone through the "second line" are deemed to have been successfully implemented. 60 enterprises and institutions have obtained the qualification of tax-free import entities.
New breakthrough in mechanism
Iterative upgrade of customs clearance mode to create demonstration window
A port witnesses the changes in the exchanges between Qin and Macao, and connects the blood and affection between the people of the two places.
In 1999, on the eve of Macao's return to the motherland, in order to strengthen Macao's connection with the mainland after its return and promote the common economic prosperity of Zhuhai and Macao, the Lotus Bridge was built and completed with the approval of the State Council. In March 2000, the first-generation Hengqin Port located at Lianhua Bridge was officially put into use, providing customs clearance services for passengers and vehicles traveling between Hengqin and Macao. Today, Hengqin Port has gone through four generations of changes, constantly innovating customs clearance models, implementing "cooperative inspection, one-time release", improving the customs clearance capabilities and customs clearance facilitation levels of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao ports, and promoting the efficient and convenient flow of personnel and materials.
According to Ye Zeying, a doctor from the School of Management of Sun Yat-sen University, the mainland, Hong Kong and Macao belong to different customs zones, and the flow of personnel, materials, capital and other elements needs to follow corresponding rules, and the key node for the flow of elements is at the port. On the basis of the basic principle of "one country, two systems", Hengqin Port continues to anchor the goals of "hard connectivity" of facilities and "soft connectivity" of mechanisms to innovate new customs clearance models, maximizing the smooth flow of people, logistics, capital, information, etc. flow.
"Traditional free trade zones usually focus more on trade facilitation and tax incentives, while the cooperation zone's separate management and customs clearance operations are further expanded on this basis, paying more attention to comprehensive institutional innovation and comprehensive opening up." China (Shenzhen) Comprehensive Zhao Shenghui, director of the Enterprise and Market Research Center of the Development Research Institute, said that if Qin'ao wants to speed up the integration process, it must strengthen "first-line" port management and "second-line" channel management. After the customs closure, the Hengqin Port will be more liberalized, and the working models of customs, border inspection, inspection and quarantine and other port joint inspection units will be innovated, and the island's connectivity with the world will be smoother.
Ye Zeying pointed out that the integration of port customs clearance data information is the basic work for the innovation of customs clearance models, which can improve the efficiency of port management and facilitate customs clearance for passengers. At present, Hengqin Port has made great breakthroughs in the sharing of Guangdong and Macao entry-exit data and information, achieving high-speed data flow.
Taking the integrated one-stop lane for passenger and truck vehicles in the second phase of the Hengqin Port project as an example, it developed and constructed a combined one-stop system for vehicles based on the inspection system, transforming the original "small one-stop" system implemented by the Zhuhai-Macao land port border inspection and customs departments. The system has been expanded into a "one-stop" system jointly used by Hengqin Border Inspection, Hengqin Customs, Macau Customs, Macau Public Security Police, and Macau Health Bureau, achieving seamless connection between the lane inspection sites of Guangdong and Macao. , continuously improve the overall supervision efficiency of Hengqin Port, promote the implementation of "first-line" liberalization of goods and "second-line" control, and highly facilitate the entry and exit of personnel.
"Relaxation" means more "openness", and Hengqin can become a demonstration window for the Greater Bay Area's opening up to the outside world. Ye Zeying suggested that in the context of the integrated development of Qintao and Macao, more and more residents choose to work, live and study cross-border. Relevant departments can explore the implementation of credit classification management for inbound and outbound passengers, and conduct credit classification management for low-risk and high-reputability passengers. It provides residents with a simple, convenient and high-speed customs clearance process. Hengqin can open its arms and embrace the world with a more open attitude.
Nanfang Daily reporter Huang Tianru He Liyuan Liang Han