Original Title: Kashgar Pilot Free Trade Zone Writes a New Chapter in Silk Road Opening Up
Our reporter Li Mu
As the first stop of the "Sing a New Song in the North and South of Tianshan Mountains" themed promotional activity, the interview team recently visited the Kashgar area of the China (Xinjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as Kashgar Free Trade Zone) located in the Kashgar region of Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. This is a rapidly rising open highland under the "the Belt and Road" initiative. Through institutional innovation and industrial development, it is promoting the high-quality development of border economy and writing a new chapter in the opening up of the Silk Road.
Helping Chinese companies' go global '
On November 11, 2023, the Kashgar Free Trade Zone was officially unveiled and became an important part of the national pilot free trade zone. Its planned area is 28.48 square kilometers, covering the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone and surrounding areas. As an important gateway for southern Xinjiang's opening up to the outside world, Kashgar Free Trade Zone, with its unique geographical location and abundant resource advantages, is becoming a key node connecting the markets of Central Asia and South Asia.
Since its unveiling, Kashgar Free Trade Zone has rapidly promoted a series of institutional innovations to promote the vigorous development of an outward oriented economy. Under the framework of the Free Trade Zone, Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone has opened a 'territorial direct access' mode with multiple international land ports, greatly reducing the clearance time from the original 3 to 5 days to 6 to 8 hours, greatly reducing the logistics costs and customs clearance difficulties of enterprises. "Guo Shusong, director of the Kashgar Comprehensive Bonded Zone Management Committee, introduced to reporters from the Rule of Law Daily.
As of now, Kashgar Free Trade Zone has attracted 3052 enterprises to settle in, including multiple cross-border e-commerce and international logistics companies, which has steadily increased the import and export trade volume of the area and contributed more than 40% to Xinjiang's foreign trade.
At the same time, Kashgar Free Trade Zone is also implementing the "three in one postal, express, and cross-border e-commerce" reform, which integrates the comprehensive processes of mail, express delivery, and cross-border e-commerce to further improve cross-border logistics efficiency and reduce enterprise operating costs. This series of innovative measures has won the trust of more enterprises in Kashgar Free Trade Zone and promoted efficient economic operation.
Building an international legal service hub
Economic development cannot be separated from the guarantee of the rule of law. While Kashgar Free Trade Zone is rapidly advancing, it has always placed the construction of the rule of law in an important position, actively drawing on advanced experience and establishing a special working group for the construction of the rule of law, clarifying the specific responsibilities of relevant functional departments and legal service institutions.
The reporter learned from the Kashgar Judicial Bureau that the rule of law construction in Kashgar Free Trade Zone aims to create an international legal service highland, with a focus on promoting the construction of the "Law Wisdom Valley" foreign-related legal service platform. The platform is coordinated by the local political and legal committees, led by the regional judicial bureaus, and undertaken by Kashgar City. It provides trilingual version switching between China, Britain and Russia, integrates the laws, regulations, cases, and lawyer resources of the "the Belt and Road" countries, and provides enterprises with all-weather and all-round foreign-related legal support. The "Law Wisdom Valley" online platform was launched in July 2024, helping enterprises solve legal problems in cross-border business and providing one-stop services such as arbitration, notarization, and judicial appraisal for enterprises in the region, promoting the formation of an international legal business environment.
In order to better serve enterprises in the free trade zone, the Kashgar branch of the Shenzhen International Arbitration Institute has also been established within the free trade zone to provide diversified dispute resolution services. Through this platform, enterprises can resolve international commercial disputes more quickly and efficiently, injecting strong impetus into the rule of law construction of free trade zones.
The continuous deepening of the rule of law construction has also promoted innovation in international legal services. Kashgar region has cooperated with universities such as Southwest University of Political Science and Law and Northwest University of Political Science and Law to launch a foreign-related legal talent training program, further improving the level of legal services in the free trade zone and providing strong talent guarantee for future development.
The sense of achievement and happiness continues to improve
The Kashgar Free Trade Zone is not only an economically open platform, but also a practical base for promoting ethnic unity and forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation. In the process of building the free trade zone, the Party Committee of the autonomous region has always emphasized the need to firmly grasp the main line of forging a sense of community for the Chinese nation, promote extensive exchanges, comprehensive exchanges, and deep integration among all ethnic groups, promote economic development, and also promote the formation of closer connections among people of all ethnic groups in common labor and life.
Guo Shusong told reporters that the Kashgar Free Trade Zone relies on the "6+4" (six key industries including international logistics and four supporting industries including airport economy) open characteristic industrial system to promote the development of labor-intensive industries such as electronic product assembly, textile and clothing manufacturing, and deep processing of agricultural and sideline products, gradually forming an important growth pole for the regional economy.
The reporter noticed that with the rapid development of the free trade zone, a large number of employment opportunities have emerged, absorbing a large number of local residents for employment. By creating common economic benefits, the living standards of people of all ethnic groups have been improved, and their sense of gain and happiness continues to increase.
The Kashgar Free Trade Zone has become an important open economic platform in southern Xinjiang and even the whole country through the construction of the rule of law, institutional innovation, and industrial linkage. Driven by the "the Belt and Road" initiative, the Kashgar Free Trade Zone is taking a new attitude to help the frontier economy take off and contribute to the high-quality development of Xinjiang. (Li Mu)