China sets up new harbor area for planned free trade zone with ASEAN
All Headline News | October 12, 2007
China Sets Up New Harbor Area For Planned Free Trade Zone With ASEAN
Windsor Genova - AHN News Writer
Haikou, China (AHN) — China has started construction of a bonded harbor area that will form part of a future free trade zone with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
The Yangpu Bonded Harbor Area (YBHA), which will host Chinese exporters with preferential tax rates, is located at the Yangpu Economic Development Zone in south China’s Hainan Province.
Hainan Vice Governor Jiang Sixian said the local government is constructing the first phase of the $6.66-billion, 3.56-square-mile (9.21-square-kilometer) YBHA. The area is targeting to export more than $13 billion worth of products to ASEAN countries and generate tax revenues of $1.6 billion annually by 2012.
ASEAN is composed of Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
The customs chief of Haikou, Hainan’s capital, Li Lanxue, said the YBHA will offer tax breaks on imports and rebates on China-made commodities. Li Lanxue added that trade between companies inside the harbor area would be exempted from value added and consumption taxes, and will be given preferential treatment by the Yangpu Economic Development Zone.
Jiang said the YBHA, the fourth of its kind in China, is an ideal site for the China-ASEAN free trade zone. He said it is close to key international shipping routes and has a deep-water shoreline of more than 31 miles (50 kilometers). The shoreline can accommodate up to 80 berths for ships weighing 300,000 tons.
The free trade zone, which has a population of 1.8 billion and $2 trillion in gross domestic product, is touted to become the third largest global trading region after the European Union and the North America Free Trade Zone.
