Caofeidian Free Trade Zone

Caofeidian Free Trade Zone, approved by the State Council on July 23, 2012, is the first comprehensive free trade zone in Hebei province, with its location in central Caofeidian district in Tangshan of the province.

The zone covers a planning area of 9.1 square kilometers, including a 4.59-sq-km special area under the supervision of the Customs, which has a coastline of 3.3 km and can house 11 berths for vessels of 50,000 to 70,000 metric tons.

The zone can provide ten services of bonded warehousing, international transit, international delivery, international purchasing, entrepot trade, research and development and design, export processing, products exhibition, detection and maintenance, and port and shipping.

It also has preferential policies involving tax exemption, tax refund, storage without time limits, and convenient settlement of foreign exchanges for investors.

The zone has invested a total of 2.5 billion yuan ($362.31 million) to improve its business environment. The port facilities, a comprehensive service center, the road network, multi-functional berths, and the 38,700-square-meter warehouses have been built up. The 550,000-sq-m bonded warehouses, the 77,000-sq-m constant temperature cold storage facilities, and the 20,000-sq-m processing workshops are also under construction, with the ability of meeting the needs of large-scale construction and mass production of enterprises in the zone.

It is also home to a financial service center, a bonded exhibition center, a quarantine and testing center, a consumer experience center, an innovation and entrepreneurship center and other facilities that comply with the development trend of modern comprehensive free trade zone, as well as some functional platforms for automobile import, cross-border electronic commerce, financial leasing, logistic services, and innovation and entrepreneurship.

Depending on the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebe region, the construction of Belt and Road Initiative and the cooperation between Tangshan and Binhai New Area of Tianjin, Caofeidian Free Trade Zone strives to promote the development of its international trade, high-end manufacturing, warehousing, logistics, and modern services industries. It hopes to develop itself into a modern trade services development platform, the center of medium to high-end consumption, and a leading place for innovation and entrepreneurship.