Wei Ran (L), deputy director of the office for the planning and construction of the Beibu Gulf economic zone, and Tan Pichuang (R), mayor of Qinzhou, unveil the Beibu Gulf International Gateway Shipping Service Center on Dec 5. [Photo by Xia Weiman/qinzhou.gov.cn]

The Beibu Gulf International Gateway Shipping Service Center officially started operation on Dec 5 in Guangxi Qinzhou Free Trade Port Area, marking a substantial step in the construction of the international gateway port of Beibu Gulf, which will provide better services to countries and regions along the New International Land-Sea Corridor in West China.

Covering an area of 33,836 square meters, the shipping center integrates the functions of port shipping and port services; the business window service areas of customs, maritime, border inspection, and port management; as well as enterprises, such as ports, shipping, freight forwarding, shipping agency, customs declaration, financial insurance, legal consulting, and logistics.

In the future, the shipping center will rely on ship transportation and port services to build a modern shipping service industry system based on shipping services, shipping agents, and freight services, supported by shipping information and shipping transactions, as well as guaranteed by shipping finance. It will also optimize customs clearance and shipping information to help Beibu Gulf Port to speed up the development of an international gateway port for the Land-Sea Trade Corridor.

Wei Ran, deputy director of the office for the planning and construction of the Beibu Gulf economic zone, said at the launching ceremony that the shipping center will be conducive to the optimization of the business environment of the western Land-Sea Trade Corridor and expand the opening up of the region.

To date, nearly 80 companies have settled in the shipping center. It is estimated that by the end of June 2020, there will be about 120 port and shipping logistics trading companies settled in the shipping service center. By the end of 2022, 90 percent of Qinzhou Port's shipping, freight forwarding, customs declaration, multimodal transport, financial, and insurance companies will be settled in it.