Category: WeChat

A mini program in WeChat called Tourists’ Fingertip Service (海关旅客指尖服务) rolled out by Beijing customs started to run on-line from Oct 30. 

Beijing Customs announced the launch of a WeChat mini program to facilitate customs declaration services for inbound and outbound passengers. 

The new measure is part of the drive by customs authorities to improve e-governance services and make supervision of luggage more intelligent. 

Passengers can use the mini-program to complete 6 types of customs declarations: 

• Outbound goods
• Outbound currency
• Inbound tax-related items
• Checked-in luggage
• Pets
• Inbound currency

The service now operates in Beijing’s three ports including Beijing Capital International Airport, Beijing Daxing International Airport, and Beijingxi Railway Station. 

It breaks restriction of time and space, which means that tourists can declare their needs in advance and avoid waiting in line at the service windows. 

The mini-program has been used in Guangzhou since Aug 12, boosting the “Internet plus” government service mode and promoting the smart supervision of luggage. 

It features useful reminders, automatic tax calculation functionality and OCR recognition, enabling passengers to cut down the time it takes to make declarations at customs to just five minutes. 

“Functions like warm tip, article database, automatic calculation of tax payment and OCR of photos shortens the process of declaration,” said Feng Ruilin, luggage and mail section chief of the Guangzhou customs supervision office.

Though any passenger in the ports mentioned above can use the service, but we found that it’s available in Chinese only. Therefore, we recommend you to ask the customs staff for help. 

You can scan the code to enter the mini-program

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SOURCE | The Paper / Guangzhou Customs

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WeChat has launched a new service that enables overseas tourists to get a digital refund tax as the latest application of financial technology in various sectors. Let’s check how to apply! 

Since Oct 1, overseas tourists can receive instant tax refunds into their WeChat Wallet via mini-program We TaxFree Pass in WeChat app. 

Now both Alipay and WeChat offer the real-time tax refund service at airports. 

This new service saves your time by speeding up the tax refund process at the airport and gives you the assurance of a successful refund as you can see it arrive immediately into your payment account. 

In the past, inbound tourists could only get the refundable tax in cash or through their bank cards. It takes five workdays on average to get the refunds for those who have a large amount of tax rebates more than 10,000 yuan ($1,415). 

The service has been made available in Beijing Capital International Airport, where 49 tax refund deals have been made through digital payment methods. 

It will be provided in Beijing Daxing International Airport and other cities soon. 

 

 

 

4 Steps Easy Tax Refund

• Go Shopping & Request Tax-Free Form

Stores displaying the Tax Free sign offer Tax Free services. 

There’s a list of eligible stores in the mini-program to help you get clear whether the store offers Tax Free shopping. 

 

• Customs Approval

There are two customs approval points in Beijing Capital International Airport so far. 

 

• Return Your Tax-Free Form

• Get Money To WeChat Wallet

If the refund amount is less than 10,000 yuan, you can ask for paying cash; 

When the refund amount is more than 10,000 yuan, you must be paid by bank card transfer. 

Scan the code to open the mini-program We TaxFree Pass

TAX REFUND CONDITIONS

• Applicable Persons

Overseas persons residing in mainland China for a continuous period of not more than 183 days (including HK, Macao and Taiwan). 

• Amount

 

Shopping at the eligible stores, when the amount of refundable items reaches 500 yuan, you can ask the Cleark for tax refund application form and purchase invoice. 

• Departure Date

The departure date shall not exceed 90 days from the purchase date. 

• Refund Rate

 

The actual refund money is 6% or 9% of the amount of the consumption. China’s current tax refund rate is 8% or 11%, the agencies will charge 2%. 

• Refundable Items
  

 

There are a total of 21 categories of 324 items refundable, including clothing, shoes and hats, cosmetics, watches, jewelry, electrical appliances, medical care and beauty equipment, kitchen utensils, furniture, photographic equipment, computers, sporting goods, etc. 

 

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SOURCE | China Daily / 微信金融科技

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At the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), foreign companies praised China’s pledge to open up further, the country’s unremitting efforts in this regard and its improving business environment. 

China will further ease market access for foreign investment and shorten its negative list, as Global Times reported. 

Business environment in China will be continuously improved to be more market-oriented, law-based and internationalized. 

What’s more, China will adopt five measures to promote higher-level opening-up, including: 

• Continuing to expand market opening-up
• Imporving the framework of opening-up
• Optimizing business environment
• Deepening multilateral and bilateral cooperation
• Jointly building the Belt and Road Initiative

“It shows the world China’s determination to further open up its market,” said Wang Hao, president of Siemens Healthineers in China. 

“We’re very glad to see the Chinese government’s unremitting efforts to provide a friendly and vibrant business environment as well as great innovation capacity for foreign companies,” Wang told the Global Times on Tuesday via email. 

An increasingly open Chinese market will inject new energy into Germany’s economy, and a closer China-Germany trade relationship will bring the two countries’ complementary advantages in industrial structures into full play, Wang said. 

“This will bring more tangible benefits to companies and people of the two countries, while driving the global economy.” 

Singapore Business Federation Chairman Teo Siong Seng also told the Global Times via email that he was very glad to see China’s commitment to expanding its drive for reform and opening-up, as well as its push for strengthened innovation cooperation and technological exchange. 

“This will bring about new opportunities for enhanced economic and trade cooperation between Singapore and China. The Singaporean business community will continue to support China’s regional development strategies by deepening collaborations between businesses from both sides,” he said. 

Liang Ming, a research fellow with an institute under the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said that China’s opening-up will focus on: 

• Further lowering commodity import tariffs
• Opening-up of the services sector
• Cutting the negative list

“I predict China will further lower commodity import tariffs in 2020,” Liang said, noting that China has already lowered commodity import tariffs five times since 2018. 

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SOURCE | Global Times

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Chengdu, the capital of China’s southwestern province Sichuan, overtook technology hub Shenzhen to top the Milken Institute’s 2019 index of the nation’s best-performing cities.

What was the recent economic performance of Chinese cities? 

What are the key drivers of Chinese urban growth? 

What areas will become growth engines and centers of activities in the vast landscape of the nation? 

The rankings of China’s best-performing cities may help you find out the answers. 

The top 10 rankings (one for first- and second-tier cities and another for third-tier cities) are as follows:

 

▲ First-tier cities refer to municipalities directly governed by the Chinese central government and second-tier cities include capital cities of provinces, plus Dalian, Ningbo, Qingdao, Shenzhen, and Xiamen, according to the report.

▲ Please slide to check the map. You can tap to enlarge the full size. 

The index incorporated nine indicators for the periods ending in 2017, including: 

• One- and five-year employment growth;
  
• One- and five-year gross regional product (GRP) per capita growth; 
• Three-year foreign direct investment (FDI) growth; 
• Proportion of FDI to GRP; 
• Location quotient (LQ) for hight value-added industry employment. 

Chengdu is the Milken Institute’s top-ranked Chinese city for the third time. It bears the fruit of the successful “western development” strategy the city embarked upon 20 years ago. 

TOP 1 – CHENGDU

Chengdu, the “Land of Abundance” in Sichuan province, surged to number one spot thanks to strong gains in its ratio of foreign investment to GRP, as well as employment and wage growth, between 2016 and 2017, the report said. 

 

Chengdu’s five-year job growth was the highest among the first and second-tier cities at almost 180%. 

In recent years, Chengdu has become an attractive destination for young, educated workers seeking a cheaper location as rents rise in Beijing and Shanghai. 

 

 

Technology companies have set up service centers in the manufacturing hub, and start-ups have also gravitated toward its laid-back and progressive culture. 

OTHER CITIES

According to the tables, Shenzhen, Beijing round out top 3 larger cities, Dongguan tops the list of smaller cities. 

As China’s innovation economy poster child, Shenzhen has reinvented itself from a low-cost gadget manufacturing center to an innovation powerhouse. 

The city is the birthplace of a new generation of telecom products and is the tech-entrepreneur hub of China. Most recently, the Chinese government has given Shenzhen the mission of “building a model city” for the world. 

Beijing, the nation’s capital and a lead in developing the Tongzhou district, home to the Beijing municipal government, captures the third spot with the support of an influx of foreign direct investment (FDI). 

“Beijing was not the list last year. But the city has seen a big increase in the foreign direct investment over the past years thanks to the developed investment environment,” said Wong, managing director of research at the Milken Institute and co-author of the report. 

Dongguan, China’s manufacturing powerhouse in Guangdong province, topped the list of 228 small-to-medium sized third-tier cities. 

The city has been promoting automation and advanced manufacturing since 2014, which has played an essential role in rebooting the economy, the report said. 

 

Which Chinese city do you like best? Please leave a comment and share your idea! 

 

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SOURCE | China Daily / Milken Institute / SCMP

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