Open to the north and stride forward

In 1~9 months, Harbin achieved a total import and export volume of 36.33 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 43.3%, and a total import and export volume of 8.16 billion yuan to Russia, a year-on-year increase of 87.6%; In 1~10 months, the Kazakh-Russian train ran 93 trains and shipped 9,104 TEUs of goods, with a value of 153 million US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 2%; In 1~10 months, the growth rate of the total import and export value of Harbin ranked first among the 15 sub-provincial cities in the country; The number of international sister cities in Harbin ranks among the top sub-provincial cities... In recent years, Kazakhstan has given full play to its geographical advantages, actively coordinated the construction of trade, investment, channels and platforms, boldly explored and tried in market access, factor flow, institutional opening-up, etc., and accelerated the construction of a "capital open to the north". This is what the reporter learned from the series of press conferences on the theme of "keeping in mind the entrustment and striving to create a new situation of high-quality development" held by the Harbin Municipal Party Committee on the 21st - to build a "capital open to the north".

Create a new highland for inland opening up with high quality

Harbin will further release the advantages of the pilot free trade zone, the Harbin area, the comprehensive bonded zone, the Harbin airport economic zone and other pilot policies. In January ~ October this year, the import and export volume of the comprehensive bonded zone reached 5.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 107.7%, accounting for 14.5% of the city's total import and export volume, and the growth rate ranked 11th among the 153 comprehensive bonded zones in the country.

Di Kai, executive deputy director of the comprehensive bonded zone, said that the comprehensive bonded zone was officially approved by the State Council on March 7, 2016, and is currently the second in our province and the only one in Harbin City. As the most complete industrial park in Longjiang open to the outside world, the park has created a high-quality trade, customs clearance, logistics "three facilitation" system, through the Harbin inland port and airport port "district port linkage", to achieve the bonded function and "China-Europe and China-Russia railway trains", "China-Russia and North America air cargo charter flights" and "China-Russia truck trains" and other international logistics channels effective connection, further strengthen the function of Kazakhstan international logistics hub.

The construction of international logistics channels to promote the steady growth of foreign trade

In recent years, Harbin has closely focused on the strategic goal of building a "capital open to the north", and has coordinated the construction of trade, channels and platforms, and achieved positive results. According to Liu Ming, deputy director of the Harbin Municipal Bureau of Commerce, in terms of foreign trade scale, in January ~ October 2023, the total import and export value of Harbin City will reach 39.95 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 41.1%, 41 percentage points higher than the national level, and rank first among the 15 sub-provincial cities in the country.

In accelerating the construction of international logistics channels, Harbin has formed a relatively complete "trinity" cross-border logistics system of aviation, railway and highway. There are 1 cargo route to Russia and 2 North American cargo routes; The Kazakh-Russian train and road transport to Russia have been normalized. In the first 10 months of this year, a total of 187 cargo routes were flown on cargo routes, with a cargo volume of 5,635 tons and a value of 1.02 billion yuan, and 93 Kazakh-Russian trains were launched, shipping 9,104 TEUs with a value of 153 million US dollars.

In terms of giving full play to the function of an open platform carrier, in January ~ October this year, the Harbin Comprehensive Bonded Zone (referred to as the Comprehensive Bonded Zone) achieved an import and export volume of 5.8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 107.7%; The Harbin Area of the China (Heilongjiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the Harbin Area of the Pilot Free Trade Zone) achieved an import and export volume of 8 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 58%; Harbin Airport Economic Zone imported edible aquatic designated supervision site and bonded aviation fuel and other projects are expected to be completed and put into operation by the end of the year.

Strengthen the chain and promote the construction of a comprehensive freight hub

In July this year, Harbin was approved as a national comprehensive freight hub to supplement the chain and strengthen the chain to support the city, and the role of the freight hub was further strengthened. Zhong Guowei, deputy director of the Harbin Municipal Transportation Bureau, said that at present, Harbin is accelerating the construction of a number of logistics centers such as the new international air cargo logistics center at Harbin Airport and the first phase of the bonded logistics center (Type B) project in the Harbin area of the pilot free trade zone, and strengthening the infrastructure to "make up for shortcomings". Three collection and distribution projects, including the second channel of the airport and the special railway line of the comprehensive bonded zone, will be built to solve the "last mile" problem of multimodal transport. At the same time, it will encrypt domestic all-cargo aircraft routes, build an air logistics channel for the Americas, develop key cargo routes in Europe such as Russia, and build an international cargo hub in Harbin.

"At present, Harbin is actively promoting the efficient linkage between the airports of Harbin and Harbin Airport Economic Zone, the deep integration of the hub and the industrial chain and supply chain, and working together to build a demonstration benchmark for the airport and station economy. At the same time, we will speed up the construction of the Harbin-Changchun Integrated Development Demonstration Zone, form an international land-port linkage, lead the urban cooperation mechanism, and increase the application of local characteristics such as the 'three districts and one port' zone. Zhong Guowei said that after the completion of the above projects, cross-regional, cross-field linkage and the level of integration with the industrial chain and supply chain will be significantly improved, which will strongly support the construction of the national energy and food security strategy of land-sea intermodal transport assembly center, agricultural products and raw materials and other bulk commodity export distribution centers, and serve the construction of a new dual-cycle development pattern.

Expand the "circle of friends" and open up to the outside world and press the "fast forward button"

As an important platform and channel for our province to open up to the outside world, Harbin has more friends, more opportunities for foreign cooperation; The bigger the circle, the greater the international influence of Harbin. How to achieve resource sharing, complementary advantages, win-win cooperation, and promote Kazakhstan to make friends with foreign cities at all levels?

Wang Ning, deputy director of the Foreign Affairs Office of Kazakhstan, said that in recent years, Kazakhstan has undertaken more than a dozen important foreign-related activities at the national and ministerial levels, maintained friendly exchanges with more than 100 foreign cities, and concluded international sister cities with 36 cities in 28 countries, ranking among the top sub-provincial cities.

In the next step, Kazakhstan will continue to adhere to the characteristics of multi-dimensional foreign exchanges, strengthen the opening pattern of focusing on Russia, radiating Northeast Asia, and facing Europe and the United States, upgrade its relations with Russia, deepen its cultivation of Japan and South Korea, consolidate Europe and the United States, promote ASEAN, expand the international friendly space, and help build a new highland for opening up to the north. We will make every effort to enhance the function of "a central city for cooperation with Russia", give full play to the effectiveness of the mechanism of regular intergovernmental meetings between sister cities, tap the potential of the tripartite mechanism of "Shenzhen-Kazakhstan-Russia", and consolidate the relations with sister cities in Russia, Europe and the Far East by holding various activities at a high level.

Focus on reform and innovation, and accelerate integration into the dual-cycle development pattern

As the frontier of the province's opening up to the north, the Harbin Area of the Pilot Free Trade Zone is the core hub of cooperation between Russia and Northeast Asia, and has been given the strategic positioning of "a highland for comprehensive cooperation with Russia and Northeast Asia and a national logistics hub connecting China and radiating Europe and Asia". In the overall promotion of the construction of the opening system to the north and the support for enterprises to better integrate into the international and domestic dual-cycle development pattern, the Harbin area of the pilot free trade zone has given the answer.

Huang Mingjin, deputy secretary of the Songbei District Party Committee of Harbin City, said that since the establishment of the Harbin Area of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, based on the actual needs of cooperation with Russia, 553 reform and innovation projects have been promoted in stages, 224 reform experiences have been copied from Shanghai and other pilot free trade zones, and 180 independent system innovation cases have been launched, of which 46 have been selected as provincial innovation cases and replicated and promoted throughout the province, and the Shenzhen-Kazakhstan cooperation model has been promoted nationwide as a typical experience of counterpart cooperation. At present, the Harbin Area of the Pilot Free Trade Zone is actively aligning export-oriented enterprises with national, provincial and municipal strategies, and supporting all-round cooperation in the fields of economy, culture, science and technology, education, and medical care.

Source: Heilongjiang Daily (reporter Han Liping Xing Hanfu)