The maritime departments of the five regions around the Bohai Sea have woven a "network" to handle cross-regional business and "run errands" for enterprises.

China News Service, Tangshan, November 7th. Title: The maritime departments of the five regions around the Bohai Sea have weaved "one network" to handle business across domains and "run errands" for enterprises.

Authors Zhang Huijie Han Dong Lu Xinqiao

"You don't have to go to the ship's port of registry and submit the materials at the Caofeidian Maritime Safety Bureau window. You can get the nationality certificates and minimum safe manning certificates for the two ships in three working days. The overall cost savings exceeds 90%." When talking about the cross-regional maritime government affairs business in the Bohai Rim Free Trade Zone, Man Ying, a salesperson at a shipping company, said.

On April 28, staff from the Caofeidian Maritime Safety Administration Government Affairs Center guided the person in charge of the shipping company to fill in relevant ship registration information. (File photo) Photo provided by Caofeidian Maritime Safety Bureau

The Bohai Rim region is home to Caofeidian Port, Tianjin Port, Dalian Port, Qingdao Port, Yantai Port and other large ports with a capacity of 100 million tons, and port and shipping companies move frequently across regions. Previously, "traveling to multiple places and back and forth" for services in different places has become a problem for many companies.

According to the relevant person in charge of the Caofeidian Maritime Safety Bureau, in the face of the "troubling issues" faced by enterprises, the "neighboring" maritime safety departments in Hebei and Tianjin took the lead in exploring ways to seek change. In 2024, the Caofeidian Maritime Safety Bureau in Hebei and the Dongjiang Maritime Safety Bureau in Tianjin tested the "same standard in different places, collection and transfer", and a number of high-frequency maritime services were first accepted nearby. On April 21 this year, the maritime departments of Caofeidian in Hebei, Dongjiang in Tianjin, Dalian in Liaoning, Qingdao in Shandong, and Yantai in Shandong jointly signed the "Memorandum of Cooperation on Cross-regional Interoperability of Maritime Government Affairs in the Bohai Rim Free Trade Zone."

Relying on this "interconnected network" jointly organized by the maritime departments of the five places, nine high-frequency matters such as ship ownership registration, ship nationality certificate issuance, and bareboat leasing registration have been included in the cross-domain comprehensive list. At this point, the integration of maritime and government affairs in the Bohai Rim Free Trade Zone has entered a new stage of "coordination among five regions".

"Now at the Caofeidian Government Affairs Hall, enterprises can directly handle maritime business in the five regions around the Bohai Sea." Guo Weiqian, a staff member of the Government Affairs Center of the Caofeidian Maritime Bureau, said that the new model establishes the core mechanism of "nearby acceptance, off-site review, simultaneous certification, and global mutual recognition." Enterprises no longer need to follow the port of registry and can submit materials at any interoperability window in the five regions, allowing interoperable data to "run errands" for enterprises.

"In the past, we had to go to multiple jurisdictions to handle ship registration business, which was time-consuming and laborious and increased shipping costs. Now that it is available in all five locations, our operating costs and labor costs have dropped significantly." Speaking of the convenience brought by this reform, Man Ying praised repeatedly.

It is reported that since the launch of the first cross-regional maritime government affairs service in the Bohai Rim Free Trade Zone, the mechanism has carried out a total of nearly 70 transactions, reducing the original certificate application cycle from more than 20 days to 3 working days. The time limit for ship registration business has been reduced by more than 80%, and the cumulative savings related to the operating costs of shipping companies have exceeded 10 million yuan. Recently, the "New Model for Cross-regional Maritime Government Affairs in the Bohai Rim Free Trade Zone" was awarded the "National Transportation Service Practice Case".

A reform has broken down the regional barriers in maritime affairs and smoothed the circulation channels of shipping elements in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the Bohai Rim. It is helping the Bohai Rim port group to develop in a coordinated manner and move towards the sea. (over)