宁波旨在打造汽车产业基地

China's port city of Ningbo was the first in Zhejiang Province to have imports and exports exceed 100 billion US dollars. Now it's working on importing finished vehicles and selling them in cities further inland.

A company selling imported cars. Here in Ningbo’s Meishan port zone, customers can now buy a car at a price 10 to 15% lower than in ordinary 4-S auto stores. But the price is not the only advantage, as the company is working with several online sales platforms, to provide door-to-door delivery services.

"After ordering a car on an e-commerce platform, customers can receive their cars and keys at their front-doors. That’s what we offer. We want to provide the best logistics services to them," Zhang Dehong, deputy GM of Citic Gangtong Int'l Logistics Co., said.

SUVs and other luxury cars are among the best sellers. They are mostly imported from America, Europe and Middle East regions like Dubai. They are sold across the entire country, but do especially well in inland regions like Sichuan, Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia.

Ranking fourth nationwide in terms of GDP, Zhejiang Province is the core consumer market for imported luxury cars. And the province’s city of Ningbo in particular aims to build a leading automotive industrial base in the Yangtze River Delta, where it will provide one-stop services including customs clearance, warehousing, and transportation.

The Meishan free trade port zone is the only one of its kind in the province able to import finished vehicles. It’s also where Ningbo is working on building a trial program for what’s being called the “cyber Silk Road”

"The cyber Silk Road trial program means we are exploring more potentials for trans-border E-commerce, to build a major online business platform for bulk commodities and standard industrial products," Huang Rongcheng, director of Economic Dev't Bureau of Ningbo Meishan Free Trade Port Zone, said.

Last year, Ningbo ranked third in the Chinese Mainland in terms of container volume, after Shanghai and Shenzhen. Taking advantage of its port capacity, the city is working to play a more active role in enhancing trade relations between China and countries along the Belt and Road initiative.