China News Service, Hong Kong, October 13. Title: Huanggang Port is renovated and the integration of the Bay Area is accelerated again.
China News Service reporter Xiang Luping
At 6:30 on October 12, the Huanggang Port, which took seven years to rebuild, was officially opened for operation. This single building, the world's largest land port, welcomed the first batch of inbound and outbound passengers with a new customs clearance model of "cooperative inspection and one-time release". After swiping documents, pressing fingerprints, and facial recognition, the gates opened one after another. Many cross-border commuters who travel between Hong Kong and Shenzhen all year round lamented that passing through the border was like swiping through the subway gates. The inspection process that used to take half an hour can now be completed in a few minutes.
The jump in customs clearance efficiency is an institutional innovation achieved by Hong Kong and Shenzhen relying on soft connectivity under the "one country, two systems" framework. The rebuilt Huanggang Port implements "cooperative inspection and one-time release". Passengers only need to line up once and verify their documents once, and they can complete the entry and exit procedures for Hong Kong and Shenzhen simultaneously in the same inspection area without queuing twice. The customs clearance time for passengers has been shortened from about 30 minutes to about 5 minutes; the vehicle customs clearance time has been shortened from about 10 minutes to about 2 minutes by relying on the "five-in-one" cooperative inspection channel. In the first two hours after the port opened, the number of inbound and outbound passengers reached 5,170, an increase of more than 60% compared with the same period in previous years.
"Cooperative inspection and one-time release" does not merge two systems into one, but achieves rule docking through technological connection and process reengineering - this is precisely the unique feature of Hong Kong-Shenzhen collaboration under the "one country, two systems" framework.
The policy dividends brought by port reform are being transformed into visible customs clearance convenience and people’s livelihood benefits. The normalization of cross-border commuting is giving rise to a flourishing port economic circle. Stable cross-border commuters, scientific and creative personnel in the Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone (referred to as the "Hetao Cooperation Zone"), and cross-border school children's families constitute continuous cross-city demand.
On the Shenzhen side, according to monitoring by the Shenzhen Shell Research Institute, the average transaction price of second-hand houses in the Huanggang area reached 60,139 yuan per square meter in June this year, a half-year increase of 5.6%, 1.9 percentage points higher than the city's average; Midland Property sources revealed that residential prices in the area increased by about 15% compared with the same period last year. On the Hong Kong side, Yu Zhiwei, senior senior operating director of Centaline Properties New Territories East, expects that the property market in the northern urban area will benefit from the opening of the new port the fastest. The port area, which used to be only a transit channel, is accelerating its transformation into an international talent community integrating science and technology innovation, business and residential functions.
The circulation of people, goods and other elements activates the industrial chain, and Huanggang Port is upgraded from a customs clearance channel to a collaborative innovation fulcrum in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. As the only 24-hour travel inspection highway port between Hong Kong and Shenzhen, Huanggang Port is a key hub serving the Loop. In March this year, the first batch of duty-free scientific research goods departed from the Hong Kong Park, went through rapid verification at Huanggang Port, and reached the laboratory directly in only 35 minutes. In the future, cross-border direct buses will continue to carry scientific researchers and precision instruments to and from the two places. This 24-hour "nightless port" will continue to reduce the time cost of cross-border scientific research collaboration.
The reconstruction of port functions will reshape the regional industrial layout of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area. The original freight functions will be relocated in an orderly manner, with Shenzhen Bay, Liantang and Wenjindu Ports taking over the diversion. Cross-border freight will no longer pass through the central city of Futian. Huanggang Port, Hetao Cooperation Zone and Futian CBD are integrated, where the flow of people, logistics, capital and information efficiently converge.
Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Lee Ka-chiu said that the reopening of Huanggang Port is a concrete action taken by Hong Kong to proactively align with the country's "15th Five-Year Plan" outline, better integrate into and serve the overall national development situation, and deeply participate in the construction of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.
The renovation of Huanggang Port is a two-way upgrade of the hard and soft connectivity between Hong Kong and Shenzhen. This new door to Hong Kong and Shenzhen not only facilitates pedestrians and vehicles traveling between the two places, but also opens up a broader space for the integrated development of the Greater Bay Area.
