More than 100,000 international ships pass by Zhoushan and over 20,000 ships berth at Zhoushan Port each year. [Photo/WeChat account: china-zjftz]

Zhoushan, an island city in East China's Zhejiang province, has taken measures to improve the business environment for cross-border e-commerce, local media outlets reported on Aug 19.

Through the measures, the municipal government is striving to make trade and investment more free and convenient in collaboration with the local customs, border control, and maritime affairs departments.

Zhoushan has further optimized the "single window" system for international trade by reducing the time needed for the a ship's customs clearance from 16 hours to less than two hours, which will bring direct economic benefits to shipping companies.

The city has also pioneered paperless customs clearance and created a big data platform where relevant supervision departments, logistics companies, ports, and wharfs can share information with each other.

More than 100,000 international ships pass by Zhoush and and over 20,000 ships berth at Zhoushan Port each year, which offers a great development prospect for the international maritime service industry.

Local relevant departments have rolled out 21 innovative measures to expand one-stop service for berthed ships, including material supply, crew shifts, and bonded oil refueling. As a result, the time used for customs clearance and operation at Zhoushan Port is reduced from three days to 25.5 hours.

In 2019, the supply material value to foreign ships in Zhoushan exceeded $2.2 billion and Zhoushan Port has become the largest fueling port in China for two years in a row, ranking eighth in the world.

Due to the aforementioned measures, the foreign trade volume in Zhoushan in the first half of this year led all cities in Zhejiang with a total value of 83.42 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 55.3 percent.