Copyright 2024 - Ningbo Life / Ningbo Expat

Trade Surplus Reached Record High in Past 5 Years

News came from Ningbo Customs that Ningbo’s total volume of imports and exports reached 88.4 billion US Dollars in the first 11 months of 2012, a decrease of 1.5% over the same period last year, reaching the record high over the same period in the past five years. Among which, the imports reached 32.1 billion, US Dollars, a decrease of 6.28% over the same period last year and the exports reached 56.3 billion US Dollars, an increase of 1.5% over the same period last year. The trade surplus totalled 24.2 billion, an increase of 14%. The surplus expanded significantly was mainly due to the sharply fall of commodity futures, steel and copper imports in this year.

Tariff to be adjusted from 2013

Tariff against some products such as infant milk powder and lens of single-lens reflex cameras will be adjusted from January 1st, 2013. Online shop owners have been informed that price of infant milk powder will be lowered.
Tariff against infant milk powder will be cut from 20% to 5%.
To boost the economic and social development and domestic consumption, China will allow five groups of products to be imported on a tax rate that is lower than the most-favored-nation rate of duty. Lower tariffs on medical equipment and products closely related to people's livelihoods, including cardiac pacemaker and infant milk powder, have been much attention. Tariffs will also be lowered on raw materials and spare parts for the equipment manufacturing industry and strategic emerging industries, such as robots used for automobile production. Resource products as well as energy-saving and emission-reduction products will also benefit from lower rates. Products that support the development of the agriculture and textile industry are also included on the list.
Tax rate against the lens of single-lens reflex camera and of common cameras will be lowered from 15% to 4%. And that against cardiac pacemakers and vascular stents will be reduced from4% to 2%. The tax rate against infant milk powder and other food products for the infant will be lowered respectively from 15% to 5% and from 20% to 5%

The city to remove more coal-fired boilers next year

Ningbo has so far removed all coal-fired boilers in the National High-tech Zones as the last two were permanently shut down on Wednesday. The Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau said Ningbo has accomplished the second phase of its smoke-fee zone project.

Ningbo plans to start the third phase of the smoke-free zone construction by removing more coal-fired boilers in suburbs and counties next year.

The peak season for heating comes around mid-November to March in Ningbo. According to Sun Shiwei, deputy director of the heating network department of Ningbo Kefeng Heating Equipment Co., Ltd., the company's two fire boilers were used for heating National High-tech Zone and the eastern part of Jiangdong District. Currently, the two old-style coal-fired boiler were shut down and replaced by two 40-ton-capacity steam gas boilers. "We can save 12,507 tons of coals and reduce 100.056 tons of sulfur dioxide emissions, 36.77 tons of nitrogen oxide emissions, 33 tons of soot emissions in a year." Sun Shiwei said.

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A new cooperation pattern to be forged in Eastern Zhejiang

On the annual meeting of Eastern Zhejiang Economic Cooperation Zone on 13th and 14th, representatives from 13 fields of finance, tourism, commerce and business, science and technology, ocean fishery and so on gathered in Ningbo, discussing how to promote Ningbo’s same city clearing system and share tourism resources in the Zone.
The Zone, one of the earliest regional cooperation zones in China, is a voluntarily-established economic zone, covering the five adjoining cities of Ningbo, Shaoxing, Zhoushan, Taizhou and Jiaxing. As economic cooperation increases, the capital flow among the five cities rises rapidly.
From 2009 to 2011, Ningbo has witnessed an obvious increase of its annual capital flow with the other four cities, which takes up more than 70% of its fund flow with all the other cities (not including Hangzhou) in Zhejiang Province. Fund flow in the Zone mainly depends on the China National Advanced Payment System, which includes the High Value Payment System (HVPS) and the Bulk Electronic Payments System (BEPS). The HVPS is the most convenient method which can process business within two hours on workdays, but it requires a rather high handling charge from 5 yuan to 200 yuan and if the business amount is under 50,000 yuan, there will be an additional 30% charge. The BEPS takes a longer time of about two or three days to process business and also requires high charges, especially for the business of cheque and foreign currency. The increasingly more fund flow among the five cities is challenged by the high charges and low processing efficiency.
 “The rise of fund flow in the Zone requires urgent financial technological innovation to build a regional electronic payment system shared by the five cities,” according to workers from the Ningbo Branch of People’s Bank of China. Ningbo takes the lead in building the same city clearing system, which can share the resources among banks and lower the charges. The promotion of the system in the Zone will surely benefit enterprises and citizens.

Ningbo's Smart Logistics Services Platform listed China's top ten

Ningbo's Smart Logistics Services Platform was elected into the "top ten smart city cases", according to a report released by the China Smart City Forum recently held in Peking.

Based on Internet of Things (IOT),artificial intelligence, and information technology, Ningbo's Smart Logistics Services Platform serves as an overall supply logistics network service platform. It is one of the key projects on smart logistics system during the 12th Five-Year" period. The platform includes two parts, namely, the Ningbo E-port and fourth party logistics. It distinguished others in three aspects. Firstly, it is the first to propose the construction of the fourth party logistics market based on the logistics information service and online transaction in china. It integrates e-commerce and logistics and optimizes the resources of the buyer, the seller, the logistics provider. Secondly, the platform reforms the logistics service mode by promoting “green” logistics and reducing logistics costs. Thirdly, the platform makes wide use of GPS, IOT, and electronic sealed lead technology to ensure the real-time supervision of logistics and transport, and thus improve the efficiency of customs clearance.

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