Source:
https://scmp.com/presented/business/topics/pearl-gbanansha/article/2184595/emerging-businesses-rose-swiftly-nansha
Business

Emerging businesses rose swiftly in Nansha, the pearl of the Greater Bay Area

Bonded warehouse of Alibaba

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Emerging businesses such fields as modern logistics, cross-border e-commerce and parallel import goods are intended to become key industries of Nansha in Guangzhou, the biggest of the three pilot free trade zones (FTZs) in the Greater Bay Area (GBA), the country’s biggest economic power.

Nansha FTZ, as a testing ground for looser rules governing currency conversions and foreign direct investment, would further upgrade its financial, logistics, foreign trades and tourism sectors as part of the GBA economic circle. It will also give foreign companies greater access to the service sector.

Nansha Bonded Port Area
Nansha Bonded Port Area

More than 10,000 modern logistics enterprises, including a big number of Hong Kong-and-foreign-invested companies dealing in commercial logistics and supply chain services, have already registered for business in Nansha, where is located at the center of the GBA, covering a total area of 60 sq meters.

Taking its advantage of location and status, Nansha grants great opportunities for these companies to liaise cross-border logistics business between Chinese and overseas markets and make use of the FTZ's policy of innovation to diversify their business and manage cross-border logistics business and relating fund flows. 

The enterprises are thinking Nansha of a perfect stance – with open market access mechanism and relevant policy supports – which could provide logistics support to supply chain management and setting up e-commerce platforms with a view to providing more value-added services to their Chinese and overseas clients and sharpen their overall competitive edge.

Among them, TOP Ideal SCM, a leading Chinese company in the cross-border digital supply chain industry, signed an agreement last year with world shipping giant Maersk Damco to work together on the project of building the GBA Superior Products International Distribution Center, providing one-stop supply chain services solutions for international and domestic customers and leveraging Damco’s international supply chain expertise and client resources and Top Ideal’s innovative experience in cross-border digital solutions. 

The project will cover the construction of smart multi-function warehouses and foreign trade customs clearance service systems.

Bonded warehouse of TOP Ideal
Bonded warehouse of TOP Ideal

Top & Ideal SCM, born and raised locally, enjoys excellent benefits thanks to the help of modern tech innovation and the support of Nansha FTZ. In 2018, its service business focusing on cross-border e-commerce reached more than 6.8 billion yuan, a 44 per cent up than 2017. Nansha’s advanced intelligent clearance system ensures greater time-efficiency for the company, with a new record to complete clearance for 4100 e-commerce orders within one minute.

A trial programme allowing unauthorized dealers to sell imported cars has let more Chinese consumers enjoy easy access to overseas premium vehicles in Nansha, and the consumers’ enthusiasm has sparked sales amid softening sales in the broader market in the past a few years.

As the second biggest parallel importing vehicles port in China, Nansha sees auto parallel imports, that is vehicles bought from other markets for sale in China, surged more than 46 per cent year on year to 14,115 units last year to sell to several provinces across the country.

Nansha is the second biggest parallel importing vehicles port in China
Nansha is the second biggest parallel importing vehicles port in China

The rapidly growing business has attracted a dozen of market leaders in auto imports as parallel-import cars provided more choices in a market dominated by traditional dealers, and that government policy support had driven up the market.

Nansha is the hub of the GBA for cross border e-commerce, as there are over 300 million upper-middle class consumers in China who desire imported products that offer them a high quality and premium experience.

Currently, a total of about 2,000 related enterprises has been registered in Nansha, with about 9.87 billion yuan of cross-border e-commerce bonded imports in 2018, a 37.6 per cent year-on-year growth than the same period of 2017.

In 2017, the import-export value of Guangzhou's cross-border e-commerce stood at 22.77 billion yuan, a 55.1 percent year-on-year increase.

Phase 3 of Nansha Port
Phase 3 of Nansha Port

Guangzhou Customs handled 220 million cross-border e-commerce import and export declarations in 2017, which allowed around 800 commodities to be distributed to over 180 countries and regions throughout the world.

A Guangzhou-Hong Kong-Macau Cross-Border E-Commerce Co-operation Park is going to be launched in Nansha in the short-term future. Guangzhou Customs has also been facilitating the building of industry cluster of ‘Nansha Bonded Port Area + Baiyun Airport Comprehensive Bonded Zone’ and supporting Guangzhou’s drive to build the national cross-border e-commerce hub.