While the department focused much efforts on the fight against smuggling, it also continued to give trade facilitation the highest priority for greater contribution to the development of Hong Kong into a regional transportation and logistics hub in Asia. Hence, the department has constantly acquired equipment and streamlined procedures in a bid to enhance clearance efficiency and smoothen cross-boundary passenger and cargo flows.

2. Starting from January 2004, the Import and Export (Facilitation) Bill provides for the relaxation of import, export and transshipment control of nine categories of articles from the 31 categories under licensing controls. The changes brought about would not affect the fulfilling of HKSAR’s responsibilities in respect of international obligations, public health and safety, anti-smuggling and protection of public revenue.

3. Except those specified by the department, all air and rail cargo manifests must be submitted electronically through the services provided by "Tradelink" effective from 17 July 2004. Electronic submission saves not only time and efforts on lodgement of cargo manifests in person to different government departments, but also space for storage.

Open Bond System

4. To facilitate trade through providing a more flexible business environment for the bonded warehouse operators and reducing the cost of Customs control and compliance, a new Open Bond System (OBS) was introduced with effect from 1 April 2003. Under this new system, full time Customs attendance in licensed warehouses is no longer required. Supervision of vanning and devanning of dutiable goods and bond operations is conducted on a selective basis. Traders are only required to pay for Customs attendance on the destruction of dutiable goods. The implementation of the OBS has indeed helped lower the operating cost of the traders and facilitate legitimate business activities.

Facilitation Measure for Cross-Boundary Goods Vehicles

5. The department has been making optimal use of the resources during the night period to facilitate traders by improving cross-boundary traffic flow. After the introduction of additional vehicle lane for clearance of goods vehicles between midnight and 7:00am at Lok Ma Chau Control Point in 2002, the daily average throughput of goods vehicles rose significantly from 1 028 in 2002 to 2 097 in 2003, representing an increase of 104 per cent.

Automatic Vehicle Recognition System

6. In order to speed up the clearance of cross-boundary vehicles, the department has installed and put into operation a total of 42 sets of Automatic Vehicle Recognition System (AVRS) at the three land-boundary control points since May 2003. With the AVRS, the department is able to achieve higher accuracy in cargo clearance and reduce the average clearance time for each goods vehicle by three seconds.

24-hour Passenger Clearance at Lok Ma Chau Control Point

7. To cope with the 24-hour passenger clearance service at Lok Ma Chau Control Point which took effect on 27 January 2003, the department has created 21 posts accordingly to provide additional manpower for efficient passenger processing.

Unified Road Cargo Manifest

8. Hong Kong Customs and the Mainland Customs jointly designed a mutually acceptable paper-based road cargo manifest for the convenience of cross-boundary transportation industry and cross-boundary truck drivers. The manifest has been put on trial for 12 months since 1 January 2004, during which members of the industry only need to complete one set of manifest for submission to both Hong Kong and Mainland Customs for clearance, thus saving time for duplicate work. The usage rate rose rapidly from one to two sets per day in January 2004 to more than 3 000 sets per day by December 2004. Both Customs administrations announced the formal implementation of the unified road cargo manifest with effect from 1 January 2005.

Extension of Operating Hours at Kowloon Railway Unit

9. On 18 April 2004, the 11 and the 12 pairs of direct train started operation. The operating hours of Kowloon Railway Unit was revised from 6:45 am - 11:00 pm to 6:45 am - 11:45 pm to enhance convenience for cross-boundary passengers.

Four Additional Northbound "One-stop" Private Car Kiosks at Lok Ma Chau Control Point

10. On 12 October 2004, four additional northbound kiosks at Lok Ma Chau Control Point commenced operation for processing private cars so as to further cope with the increasing cross-boundary vehicular traffic. Unlike the operation of the existing kiosks, these four additional kiosks provide "One-stop" service of both immigration and customs clearance to outbound private cars. To bring corresponding improvement to the southbound traffic, four similar kiosks for processing private cars will be installed by mid 2005 tentatively. It is expected that the commissioning of the additional kiosks in both directions will enhance traffic flow through the crossing and on the approach roads.

Green Customs Seal

11. To avoid duplication of Customs examination so as to facilitate trade and speed up the traffic flow at the land boundary, Customs on both sides agreed to use a green Customs seal as a risk assessment indicator that goods on board an incoming goods vehicle have been examined by the other side. Hong Kong Customs has begun affixing green seals at the three land boundary control points from 15 November 2004.

New Boundary Bridge

12. In addition, a new boundary bridge with lane-changeover facilities to separate goods vehicles and passenger vehicles has been constructed at the Lok Ma Chau Control Point and has commenced operation on 19 January 2005. This facility helps solve the traffic congestion problem at Lok Ma Chau and Huanggang Control Points.

DHL Central Asia Hub

13. To cope with the rapid growth of express cargo volume and to strengthen Hong Kong’s role as a regional air cargo and logistics hub, the Airport Authority Hong Kong granted a franchise agreement to DHL to develop a new express cargo terminal at the Hong Kong International Airport in 2002. In June 2004, a new express cargo terminal named DHL Central Asia Hub (CAH) came into operation and adopted an innovative Material Handling System in processing express cargo. It is a self-handling express cargo centre which serves the central Asia countries/cities and provides intermodal transshipment services for cargoes of all modes concerning air and land.

14. To increase the competitiveness of Hong Kong in the express cargo industry and to cope with the new operation mode at CAH, the department has procured specialized equipment and upgraded the Air Cargo Clearance System (ACCS) to strengthen and streamline Customs control at CAH. With the introduction of the wireless PDA in cargo clearance and the streamlined procedures to issue consolidated cargo examination report on working shift basis instead of consignment basis, the department is able to provide more expeditious cargo clearance at CAH.