On June 5th, the reporter learned from the Management Committee of the South Sichuan Port Area of the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone that among the 141 pilot tasks that can be implemented in the South Sichuan Port Area laid out in the "Overall Plan for China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone", 138 tasks have been launched, accruing 120 innovative achievements, including 11 achievements in customs, 5 in maritime shipping, 17 in inspection and quarantine, 14 in finance, 56 in government services, and 17 in taxation.

Among them, the “Direct Handling of Commercial Registration between Inland and Coastal Cities” has allowed the South Sichuan Port Area and the cities along the Yangtze River to establish a cooperation mechanism for mutual handling of government affairs, enabling them to deal with business registration works together. “The applicant submitted the application in Guangzhou. After just 5 days of online processing, the business license issued by Luzhou was handed over to the applicant.” Recalling the situation of the first remote business license issuance, the relevant person in charge of the Management Committee of the South Sichuan Port Area exclaimed, “Such institutional innovation has further spurred the enthusiasm of the people to start businesses."

"Institutional innovation is the core task of the South Sichuan Port Area." The person in charge said that this year they will benchmark against the business environment evaluation standards of the World Bank to improve the business environment through institutional innovation. Specifically, the area will strive to create 20 pioneering national institutions and promote more than three nationwide.

In addition, the South Sichuan Port Area will continue to promote institutional innovation in six areas, namely customs, inspection and quarantine, maritime, finance, taxation, and government services. In the field of customs, it will manage to introduce “tax rebates covering both the port of departure as well as the land ports” and realize the insurance and assurance of tariffs at the same time; in the field of inspection and quarantine, it will implement source management and follow-up supervision, and the construction of self-inspection ports; in the maritime field, it will promote the “smart maritime” and construct financing leasing of ships and financial shipping; in the field of national taxation, it will continue to deepen the reform for pre-review and fast refund of the export tax rebate, and to enhance the list system reform in the field of national taxation to carry out classified supervision and services for the "positive list" and "negative list"; in the field of government service, it will focus on "once for all” solution to tackle data sharing.

Since the unveiling of the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone more than a year ago, the South Sichuan Port Area has been trying to build the free trade zone into a high-quality and high-standard “test field” with high starting point. It has been making bold attempts and taken the initiative to reform to “test systems for the country, build windows for Sichuan, seek development for local communities, and increase welfare for the masses.” It has been making every effort to build a western shipping hub connecting the “Belt and Road” and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, establish a demonstration zone for coordinated opening-up between the inland and areas along the coasts, borders and rivers, and erect a new highland featuring open economy along the Yangtze River. It has been positioning itself as an inland free trade port. Up to now, the number of newly registered enterprises in the South Sichuan Port Area has reached 4,084.