Overseas warehouses are public overseas warehousing facilities that provide logistics services such as customs clearance, inbound quality inspection, order reception, order sorting, multi-channel shipping, and subsequent transportation for foreign trade enterprises. They serve as reservoirs in the supply chain of the foreign trade industry chain. Premier Li Keqiang has repeatedly emphasized the need to actively promote the development of public overseas warehouses. At the symposium of economic experts and entrepreneurs on November 18th, he once again proposed to “support the development of new foreign trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses”. Since the beginning of this year, the city’s business system has continuously carried out planning, guidance, and cultivation work on the construction of public overseas warehouses in our city. The report on the construction of public overseas warehouses in our city is as follows:
1、 The overall situation of public overseas warehouses in 45 countries and cities across the city, with a total area of 71.According to the “Comprehensive Evaluation Report on the Construction of Zhejiang Cross border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone” by the Provincial Department of Commerce, the total area and quantity of public overseas warehouses in our city rank third and fourth in the province, respectively. After preliminary investigation and research, the construction of overseas warehouses in our city has shown the characteristics of “three centralized” markets, entities, and establishment methods. From the market distribution, our city’s public overseas warehouses are mainly distributed in European and American countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, etc. Among them, there are 30 public overseas warehouses in the United States, with a total area of 58.150000 square meters, accounting for over 80%; From the perspective of the construction entity, Haispider is the main owner of public overseas warehouses in our city, with a total of 27 public overseas warehouses, accounting for over 45%; From the perspective of establishment methods, there are three types of public overseas warehouses: sole proprietorship, joint venture, and leasing. Among them, 50 public overseas warehouses are established through leasing, accounting for nearly 90%.
In order to promote the construction of overseas warehouses in the city, since this year, the Municipal Bureau of Commerce has closely linked with the Provincial Department of Commerce and sister cities, strengthened cooperation with vertical departments, business associations, and key enterprises, coordinated the strength of the city’s business system, increased support, guidance, and publicity for overseas warehouse entities, encouraged foreign trade enterprises to increase the layout of overseas warehouses in key markets such as the “the Belt and Road”, and deepened the construction of foreign trade logistics supply chain. This year, our city has added 16 new public overseas warehouses, exceeding the target of adding 6.
2、 Existing problems and difficulties in the construction of public overseas warehouses throughout the city
(1) Lack of overall guidance for industry development. As a new form of foreign trade development, the country has not yet established clear standards for overseas warehouses, and the construction of overseas warehouses is still mainly driven by marketization. The development of the industry lacks top-level design and overall planning, and a unified standard and regulatory system has not yet been formed in the fields of overseas warehouse operation qualifications, services, fees, etc. The industry is in a state of free development. At the same time, Wenzhou’s overseas warehouse enterprises, due to concerns about the leakage of core information such as transaction data, are mainly fighting independently and have a weak willingness to actively cooperate in groups, making it difficult to form a cluster synergy effect.
(2) The willingness of enterprises to build warehouses is not strong. In essence, overseas warehouse is a technology and capital intensive industry invested overseas, which requires high capital for enterprises, such as system costs, labor costs, warehouse construction costs, labor operation costs, etc. Some medium-sized overseas warehouses have accumulated annual operation and maintenance costs of up to 6 million yuan. Under the epidemic, international freight rates have skyrocketed, and due to legal factors such as changes in overseas policies, customs clearance, tax legality, and intellectual property rights, there are problems such as low returns, high operational risks, high policy risks, and uncertain market risks. This indirectly leads to some overseas warehouse enterprises lacking business direction and blind development, mainly relying on the appreciation of warehouse real estate land to achieve business profits.
(3) The level of compliance is relatively low. To prove the affiliated relationship of overseas entities and ensure the safety of financial funds, overseas investment certificates must be provided for the evaluation of provincial and municipal public overseas warehouses. Certificate applications and overseas investments require project approval and filing from three departments: the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before going through the remittance procedures at the designated bank. The vast majority of overseas Chinese merchants of Wen nationality are unfamiliar with relevant policies and have concerns about the entry and exit of funds. They choose to invest directly with overseas funds, resulting in the inability to obtain relevant qualifications, fail to meet evaluation standards, and are unable to enjoy policy benefits.
(4) The level of standardization and specialization needs to be improved. At present, the overall strength of our city’s public overseas warehouses is uneven, with overall regulations.The model is relatively small, and the management and operation mode is relatively traditional. The vast majority of public overseas warehouses do not have an information based warehouse management ERP system, lack a talent team for ERP system development and operation, incomplete institutional system, immature related services, and weak public service attributes. Compared to traditional distribution models, there are fewer professional public overseas warehouses that can meet the demand for cross-border e-commerce boutique models in industries such as automotive parts, home appliances, and furniture. After communication, it is allowed for export enterprises to temporarily apply the value-added tax refund (exemption) policy if they have already achieved sales in finance, priced FOB according to the customs declaration, and received foreign exchange. At present, the tax refund (exemption) declaration for cross-border e-commerce exports to public overseas warehouses in our city is smooth, but the State Administration of Taxation has not yet introduced supporting policies. The convenience level of tax refund for new business formats and market expectations still need to be further improved. The second aspect is China Export&Credit Insurance Corporation. The traditional export credit insurance model is not suitable for cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouse exports, and the credit insurance needs of cross-border e-commerce enterprises cannot be met, which also affects the development of overseas warehouses.
3、 Next steps and suggestions
In the next stage, the Commerce Bureau will continue to deepen the construction of new foreign trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses: firstly, strengthen digital empowerment. The “Overseas Logistics Platform – Overseas Warehouse Service Online” system created by the Department of Commerce this year has been personally “liked” and publicly recommended by Premier Li Keqiang. At the same time, our city is actively promoting the construction of the “One Network Connection” service system in the cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone, and plans to launch the overseas warehouse service function. In the next stage, our bureau will further accelerate the system promotion and construction process; The second is to strengthen top-level design and overall layout. We will effectively leverage the demonstration and driving role of leading enterprises and business associations, while further exploring and sorting out the list of public overseas warehouses, strengthen the writing of departments such as commerce, overseas Chinese, customs, taxation, and foreign exchange, strengthen the linkage between government and enterprises, guide leading enterprises to form a Wenzhou Overseas Warehouse Alliance, promote the co construction and sharing of public overseas warehouses, and enhance the professionalism, intelligence, and collaboration level of overseas warehouses in Wenzhou. The third is to strengthen policy supply. Actively liaise with the Provincial Department of Commerce, actively participate in the formulation of relevant standards, establish a reward and rebate mechanism for overseas warehouses and an expert review mechanism, optimize the setting standards and reward and subsidy policies for municipal overseas warehouses, guide the compliance development of Wenzhou’s overseas warehouses, actively participate in the evaluation of provincial and municipal overseas warehouses, and optimize support and incentive policies, encourage enterprises to build overseas warehouses and explore the international market, including providing overseas display, return and exchange, maintenance, warehousing, etc. for foreign trade enterprises in our city Delivery and other services, and if the export reaches a certain limit, corresponding rental subsidies will be given based on the overseas warehouse area..The focus of the work in the next stage of the department has been included in the assessment mechanism of the Department of Commerce, and a weekly rotation system has been established based on counties (cities, districts). The leaders of Anji County Party Committee attach great importance to and personally deploy the platform trial and promotion work, achieving good results. Therefore, it is recommended that each county and urban area learn from the successful experience of Anji County to improve the penetration rate of foreign trade enterprises; Secondly, fully leverage the functional advantages of the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office, closely connect and collaborate with the business department, deeply explore and allocate overseas Chinese warehouse resources, actively promote provincial and municipal overseas warehouse policies and construction results, guide overseas Chinese to operate reasonably, encourage overseas Chinese second generation to use convenient overseas resources to establish warehouses, and provide overseas warehouse services for foreign trade enterprises in our city; The third is to improve the level of convenience. Departments such as customs, taxation, and foreign exchange management should seize the opportunity of the 9810 pilot project, while improving the level of regulatory facilitation, actively connect and provide suggestions, and strive for policy pilot projects to be piloted in Wenzhou. Fourth, increase financial support. All kinds of financial institutions should support the construction of public overseas warehouses, provide medium – and long-term low interest policy loans to enterprises according to the business cycle of overseas warehouse enterprises, and suggest that export credit insurance provide new types of insurance to deal with the security of overseas warehouse storage and logistics funds; The fifth is to strengthen the guarantee of financial factors. Currently, the Commerce Bureau is actively planning a new round of cross-border e-commerce industry support policies. It is recommended to increase the support of financial funds and government industry funds for the development of new foreign trade formats. While improving the import and export performance of cross-border e-commerce, it is also necessary to strengthen the construction of public service infrastructure such as public overseas warehouses.
(Supplied by Wenzhou Municipal Bureau of Commerce)