Chapter 193 Special Policy of the Bonded Area and the Beautiful Wu Xiumei

The Mingzhou Free Trade Zone was established in November 1992 with the approval of the State Council. The zone enjoys the policy of "free license, duty-free and bonded".

The Mingzhou Free Trade Zone is under special supervision by the customs. The Free Trade Zone was one of the economic zones with the highest degree of openness and the most favorable policies in my country at that time. It has three main functions: import and export processing, international trade, and warehousing and logistics. Enjoying the policy of "free license, duty-free and bonded", and implementing the "domestic and foreign customs" operation mode, it was one of the special economic zones with the highest degree of openness, the most active operation mechanism and the most favorable policies in mainland China.

In Li Xiaofan's memory, in the early 1980s, the spring breeze of reform and opening up blew to the coast of the East China Sea. The economic status of Mingzhou's port rose rapidly, the pace of opening up to the outside world accelerated, and the dusty thousand-year-old commercial port regained vitality.

"It is possible to consider building a bonded zone in Mingzhou. Research can be carried out, and when conditions are met, it can be taken a step ahead." The encouragement of a leader of the State Council at that time opened a window for Mingzhou. In November 1992, riding on the spring breeze of reform and opening up, the Mingzhou Free Trade Zone came into being.

At that time, Mingzhou Free Trade Zone was an experimental reform and opening-up area, shouldering the heavy responsibility of "pioneering and trying first" in reform and opening-up.

At the beginning, the young management committee had no experience. With the passion of "everything for investors and everything for taxpayers", it changed the way other bonded areas were organized and built by the government, implemented the separation of government and enterprises, and adopted a corporate management system to solve the financing problem.

In February 1987, the State Council approved Mingzhou to implement a separate plan. The following year, various professional foreign trade companies in Mingzhou successively obtained valuable self-operated import and export rights. That year, Mingzhou's foreign trade exceeded US$100 million for the first time, broke US$1 billion in 1993, broke US$10 billion in 2002, and broke US$100 billion in 2013, showing explosive growth!

At that time, these state-owned foreign trade companies could live a very comfortable life just by relying on the stable commissions of import and export rights agents. Working in these state-owned foreign trade companies has high income and good benefits, and there is also the opportunity to go abroad to deal with foreigners. At that time, civil servants were not so popular. At that time, it was the most attractive to find a way to enter a certain position in a state-owned foreign trade company!

In 1995, three years after the establishment of Mingzhou Taxation Bureau, the transformation of state-owned foreign trade enterprises began. Mingzhou Free Trade Zone took the lead in opening up the right to import and export to private foreign trade enterprises. Relying on the special preferential policies of "bonded, duty-free, and license-free", a group of enterprises quickly gathered, and engaging in international trade became the mainstream at that time.

The transformation and reform of state-owned foreign trade enterprises, such as Mingzhou Free Trade Zone, which took the lead in opening up the right to import and export to private foreign trade enterprises, broke the monopoly of those state-owned foreign trade companies. From then on, the good days of these state-owned foreign trade companies were gone forever, so college students like Wu Xiumei who were assigned to them later began to have a hard time...

The Free Trade Zone Management Committee is an agency dispatched by the Mingzhou Municipal Government. Because Mingzhou is a separately planned city and a sub-provincial city, the Free Trade Zone Management Committee was a deputy department-level agency at that time.

Zhang Weiye was Li Xiaofan's junior high school classmate and one of the few junior high school classmates who were admitted to university that year. Zhang Weiye's father was the head of a department in the county at that time, and his family conditions were very good.

After Zhang Weiye graduated from university last year, he was assigned to work in the Investment Cooperation Bureau of the Mingzhou Free Trade Zone Management Committee through his father's operation.

This Investment Cooperation Bureau is actually the Investment Promotion Bureau. When the "Three Determinations" plan was made, the leaders of the Free Trade Zone Management Committee felt that the name "Investment Promotion Bureau" was too straightforward and too utilitarian, so they referred to the name of the Mingzhou Economic and Technological Development Zone Management Committee next door and named it "Investment Cooperation Bureau", which felt more high-end.

At that time, Li Xiaofan's grades were better than Zhang Weiye's, and his high school entrance examination results were enough to enter the best key middle school in Mingzhou. But at that time, my aunt was not in good health and went to Shanghai for a major operation. The family was in debt for several thousand yuan. My cousin was also in school. My uncle's clinic was temporarily closed to take care of my aunt, and the family suddenly became difficult.

At that time, the sensible Li Xiaofan resolutely chose to go to a technical secondary school to reduce the burden on his family. During the summer vacation, he and Ayong went to the Mingzhou Canned Food Factory to do odd jobs to help the family make money.

"Xiao Fan, why did you come here suddenly? Come and sit down!"

After making a cup of tea for Li Xiaofan, Zhang Weiye asked, "Didn't I hear that you went to Singapore to work? Why did you suddenly come back?"

"I quit..."

"Ah, quit? Didn't I hear that you have to pay a high agency fee when you go out? Why did you suddenly quit?"

"I quit and started my own business. I set up a small trading company in Singapore. Recently, I heard that there are preferential policies for setting up international trading companies in your bonded area, so I came to ask your old classmate..."

After hearing this, Zhang Weiye was surprised and exclaimed, "Oh, you are awesome. You quit your job and started your own business less than a year after you went there. Awesome!"

"Speaking of setting up an international trade company in our bonded area, the policy is so favorable, Xiaofan, you really caught up with the right time! We are one of the few regions in the country that first opened up the import and export rights to private foreign trade enterprises. Now there are many preferential policies for setting up international trade companies in our bonded area..."

Zhang Weiye introduced the preferential policies to Li Xiaofan: "For example, the local retained portion of the tax revenue in the first three years has different rewards and returns based on the size of your tax amount. If your new company is just starting out, you can also use our state-owned platform company to help you with import and export customs declaration and other procedures..."

"Weiye, what are the requirements and thresholds for setting up a company here?"

"Of course there is a threshold. To set up an international trade company here, the registered capital must be at least 500,000 RMB, and you also need to rent an office here as a business location..."

Li Xiaofan said: "Your registered capital of 500,000 RMB is not a problem. The key is that your bonded area is close to the port and more than 50 kilometers away from the city. It is so far away and so remote, and the transportation is inconvenient. Who would come here to work?"

Zhang Weiye smiled: "Brother, it is because of the remoteness that I want to launch a strong preferential policy to attract merchants. As for the office you mentioned, it is because a business location is required for industrial and commercial registration. In fact, we are now making a change, that is, dividing an office into many small offices and giving you a registered address. We also know that you will not come to work in reality, so in fact, it is used for you to register a company!"

"Is the rent expensive?"

"Brother, if you come to register a company, I will find you the smallest and cheapest one. 100 yuan per month is enough, just for your sake. Others who come to register will have to pay at least this amount!"

Zhang Weiye raised five fingers, meaning at least 500 yuan per month.

"Weiye, I roughly understand it, thank you! I will go back and discuss with my partners now, and then I will contact you. I may need to trouble you by then!"

"Old classmates, why are you being polite!"

After leaving the Mingzhou Free Trade Zone Management Committee, Li Xiaofan rushed to the Qingfeng Tea House on the edge of Yuehu Lake in the center of Mingzhou.

In the box of Qingfeng Tea House, Wu Xiumei had been waiting for a long time.

Wu Xiumei looks very similar to Wu Xiuli. She is not very tall, only about 1.64 meters, with fair skin, slim figure, and wearing a pair of glasses. She looks very gentle and graceful, a southern woman.

When Wu Xiumei saw Li Xiaofan, she stood up to greet him and said in surprise: "Afan, I haven't seen you for many years. You are tall and handsome now, as if you have changed into a different person!"

Li Xiaofan laughed: "Haha, we were still in junior high school at that time, and we might not have developed well yet..."

"Haha, Afan, you are so funny!"