Southern China's Guangzhou City is seeing high level of international passenger and freight traffic as the ongoing annual Canton Fair attracts hundreds of thousands of exhibitors and buyers from across the world.
The 138th edition of the China Import and Export Fair, or Canton Fair, is taking place in Guangzhou from Oct 15 to Nov 4, gathering about 32,000 exhibitors and 240,000 buyers.
Data from Guangzhou Customs showed that ports in Guangzhou handled about 5,200 inbound flights and 800,000 passenger entries in this October, marking the year-on-year of growth of 9.2 percent and 14.8 percent, respectively.
The growing number of travelers has spurred rapid growth of tax refund business for departing passengers in Guangzhou.
The local authorities have set up the green channel for travelers' tax refunds and intensified data connectivity between customs and tax refund agencies to improve processing efficiency for travelers.
"We have implemented a convenient supervision model of 'one form for one package'. That means each tax refund application form corresponds to a sealed package. As long as the packaging is intact, customs can quickly verify the tax refund items, improving the efficiency of customs verification procedures by about 70 percent," said Zhang Xiaojuan, deputy director of postal supervision department of Guangzhou Customs.
In October alone, Guangzhou Customs had supervised 72,000 tons of air cargo import and export goods at Guangzhou ports, an increase of 5.3 percent year-on-year, according to Zhang.
To meet the export demand for goods ordered from the Canton Fair, the customs at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport has implemented a 24-hour smart customs clearance for air export goods, enabling the procedures to be finished within one day.
China's Guangzhou sees high passenger, freight traffic during Canton Fair
A Chinese envoy said on Monday that dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way to resolve the Ukraine crisis, calling on the international community to build momentum for peace talks and create conditions for an early political settlement.
In their briefing at a United Nations Security Council meeting on Ukraine on Monday, UN Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs Rosemary DiCarlo said July was the deadliest month since May 2022, while UN Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator Tom Fletcher said that at least 437 civilians were killed and more than 2,600 others injured that month.
Also at the meeting, Fu Cong, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, called for an end to the fighting and greater protection for civilians.
He warned that to allow the situation to further deteriorate and escalate only deepens human suffering, destabilizes the region, and threatens global stability.
"Fighting on the ground is escalating, and the humanitarian toll is mounting. For more than a month, the two sides have been locked in a new round of fierce fighting, resulting in numerous casualties, damage to a large number of civilian facilities such as energy, food, and material storage, and attacks on third-party ships and assets, which is deeply distressing and worrying," Fu said.
The Chinese envoy said China advocates joint efforts to de-escalate the situation, initiate a peace process, and seek fundamental solutions. "Dialogue and negotiation are the only viable way out of the Ukraine issue. Currently, dialogue efforts remain stalled as deep differences persist among key stakeholders. China calls on all relevant parties to continue demonstrating political will, strive to start and sustain talks, gradually build consensus, and work towards a comprehensive, durable and binding peace agreement," Fu said.
He said that China's position on the Ukraine issue remains objective, fair, and consistent, adding China promotes peace talks in its own way and supports all efforts conducive to a peaceful settlement of the crisis.
China stands ready to work with the international community and continue playing a constructive role in the political settlement of the conflict, Fu said.
China emphasizes dialogue, negotiation as only viable path to resolve Ukraine crisis
