Xiamen, a coastal city in southeast China's Fujian Province, receives millions of tourists every year, who are drawn to its lush greenery, mountains and pristine beaches. In addition, however, investors flock to the city, which pioneered the free trade zone (FTZ) trend in China with its efficient, convenient and transparent investment climate.

To offer a better business environment, the administration of the Xiamen Area of China (Fujian) Pilot FTZ studied the business environment evaluation indicators of the World Bank, the World Trade Organization's Trade Facilitation Agreement and other major bilateral and multilateral trade and investment agreements. It also implemented a pre-establishment national treatment, a negative list and records management model. The high-quality business environment has attracted many large-scale international enterprises to Xiamen.

Today, there are more than 80 routes connecting the Port of Xiamen with different parts of the world, from the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, Australia, Southeast Asia and Northeast Asia, making it a pivotal maritime link between China and countries and regions along the Belt and Road. The Port of Xiamen adopted a digitalized system in the process of cargo handling, customs clearance and delivery of goods. Customers can now track their goods on the Internet. The port ranks 14th in the world in terms of largest volume of cargo handling.

(Photos by WANG XIANG)

Copyedited by Rebeca Toledo

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