L-R Bert Roona - LIOf (Limburg Investment Office), Chairman Yuan Chunshan - Shandong Guohui Supply Chain Management Ltd, Counsellor Zhang Guosheng - Economy and Commerce Section of the Chinese Embassy in the Netherlands, Director General Liu Dianxun - CIPA, Chairman Peter Pardoel - Cabooter Group, Huang Peng - CIPA representative for the Netherlands Belgium & Luxemburg, Yu Yongyuan - Tradeany CEO
A new logistics park in Venlo, the Netherland, is the first to pre-clear for China customs inside Europe.
The opening of the Sino-Europe Ecommerce Logistics Park (hereinafter referred to as “the park”) symbolizes a new beginning of bilateral trade transactions in e-commerce, with the capability to do customs clearance for goods before arriving at Chinese borders.
On the 20th September 2019, Chinese and Dutch honored guest witnessed the formal launch of the logistics park, opening a multi-mode e-commerce distribution channel linking Europe market with vast orders from Chinese consumers. Mr.Zhang Guosheng, the Commercial Counsellor of the Embassy of P.R.C in the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Mr. Liu Dianxun, Director General of China Investment Promotion Agency(be known as “CIPA”), Ministry of Commerce, Ms.Xu Dansong, Representative of CIPA in Europe, as well as Mr. Bert de Wit, Director Business Development of LIOF, and Mr. Peter Pardoel, Chairman of the freight logistics group Cabooter attended the ceremony.
Fan Lifang, General Manager of CCICNL, Li Yihui, Managing Director of China Southern Cargo at Amsterdam, and representatives from several Dutch leading companies which have gained achievements in logistics sphere presented to the signing ceremony.
Delegates watched STO Express operators to scan and label hundreds of delivery boxes passing through the smart check-in machine, fulfill orders placed by Chinese consumers on the cross-border e-commerce platforms, and ready them for the long haul flight to China, where they will be double checked at supervised customs stations in Xintai, Shangdong Province, and delivered to customers within four working days.
Praising the work of the Logistics Park, Liu Dianxun said, the new hub is attracting high tech distributors and taking full advantage of Venlo’s unique geographical location to feed into rail, road, air and sea routes. As big Chinese parcel carriers names like STO Express, YTO Express, SF Express, and Deppon as well as China Eastern and China Southern Airlines have signed up with the Logistics Park. After the site-visiting, Mr.Liu Dianxun asked these Chinese logistics companies to pay attention to cultural as well as technical exchanges with European counterparts as well.
Dianxun Liu, Director General of Cipa; with Chunshan Yuan, Chairman of Shandong Guohui Supply Chain company
Guosheng Zhang, Economic &Commercial Counsellor Embassy of the PRC in the Netherlands with Chunshan Yuan, Chairman of Shandong Guohui Supply Chain company
Mr. Yuan Chunshan, Chairman of the E-commerce Logistics Park told his guests that the park is set to provide three lines of services, in the produsupply chain, distribution chain, and logistics finance. Clearing customs for e-commerce is the key, and, in collaboration with other platforms, the Venlo hub would open the door for Chinese and European brands and traders to reach online shoppers in each other’s territories.
In recent years, Chinese consumers have pushed up ecommerce at home and abroad, especially for high-quality goods and services from Europe. With an estimated 850 million online shoppers in China,
Due to the upgraded trade war across the Pacific, the commercial relationship between China and Europe appear to be more significant. Following the running of China Railway Express, a few logistics centers have been set up in Europe in recent years, for example, the EU-China Logistics at Wallonia, Belgium, and the Central European Trade and Logistics Cooperation Zone in Budapest, Hungary. But they haven’t got the capacity yet for trusted customs clearance for the China market.
Following the establishment of the Venlo logistics park, the first Chinese enterprise -Shangdong Guohui International Supply Chain Management Ltd has spotted the changing consumer behavior and the potential for China Europe e-commerce.
By adopting the concept of pre-clearance as promulgated by Transquare, the park is equipped with the whole set of systems and processes as required by China’s General Administration of Customs to reduce the need for customs supervision on arrival. The park is also adopting Chinese and European certification standards to safeguard consumer interests.
Shandong Guohui, as an investor and operator to the park, is dedicated to B2B ecommerce to link European wholesalers with Chinese e-commerce platforms and small and medium-sized retailers, providing a series of services in the supply chain.
Bert Roona from Limburg Province hoped as the camel bells that rang through the ancient silk road started the communication between the East and West, today’s Logistics Park would enable tens of thousands of European and Chinese SMEs to cooperate and prosper together in e-commerce.
For Yuan Chunshan, the Chairman of the Logistics Park, he was delighted that the launch could be present to mark the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic.