The customs office in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province, announced seven facilitation measures on Sunday to ensure efficient clearance for personnel and materials arriving for the 5th Global Digital Trade Expo (GDTE), drawing representatives from 121 countries and regions.
The five-day event will run from Wednesday to Sunday. It is China's only national-level international professional expo themed on digital trade. Since its inaugural edition in 2022, the expo has drawn more than 5,000 Chinese and foreign enterprises, 87,000 professional buyers and 627,000 visitors, with over 1,200 products and technologies making their debut. This year's expo will feature 170,000 square meters of exhibition space, with international exhibitors accounting for over 20 percent of the total. The number of overseas pavilions has already exceeded the combined total of all previous editions.
To keep entry smooth for the influx of participants and exhibits, the seven measures cover every link of the customs process, from dedicated lanes and service windows reserved for GDTE participants, to more flexible tax guarantee options for exhibitors bringing goods into the country, to support for selling exhibits on site and one-stop services for the entire exhibition cycle.
Among the arrangements already in operation, integrated smart gates at the ports are speeding arriving participants through customs.
"With these integrated intelligent gates, inbound participants can enjoy seamless and efficient customs clearance at ports," said Zhao Wei, a local customs officer.
The Global Digital Trade Expo will welcome Malaysia and Hungary as its guest countries of honor, with 29 international organizations also taking part.
Hangzhou Customs rolls out facilitation measures for Global Digital Trade Expo
China's latest round of mineral exploration has delivered strong results, with substantial new reserves of oil, gas and key metals added so far this year, a breakthrough in an ongoing push to underpin the country's advanced manufacturing industry, officials said on Tuesday.
"The new round of exploration has produced encouraging outcomes. From January to August, China was added with nearly 70 million tons of recoverable oil reserves and 610 billion cubic meters of recoverable natural gas reserves. Meanwhile, new resource volumes at the Chating copper-gold mine in [east China's] Anhui Province and the Zhugongtang lead-zinc mine in [southwest China's] Guizhou Province have reached super-large scale," said Liu Guohong, secretary of the ministry's Committee of Communist Party of China, at a press conference in Beijing.
Looking ahead, leading officials of the ministry noted that demand for critical mineral resources will continue to grow during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030). To meet that demand, China will press ahead with its strategic mineral exploration drive, secure the supply of essential minerals and provide solid support for the development of advanced manufacturing.
"The primary requirements for mineral exploration are to clarify the basic geological conditions of the country and identify areas where minerals may be found. To that end, we will implement a national geological mapping plan, raise the coverage of 1:50,000 regional geological surveys on land to 51 percent, and increase the coverage of mineral geological surveys in key metallogenic belts to 66 percent, so as to gain a clear picture of our resource and energy base," said Zhou Xing, vice minister of Natural Resources.
The leading officials said exploration will focus on minerals in short supply such as petroleum, iron, copper and aluminum, while also covering rare earths and other minerals where China holds an edge. A number of key exploration and extraction projects will be launched, and more large and medium-sized mineral deposits and oil and gas fields are expected to be discovered.
China will steadily advance the construction of some 300 energy and resource bases, significantly raise the self-sufficiency rate of strategic minerals, and boost the country's resource security.
At the same time, authorities will continue to reassess existing resources and unlock the potential of low-grade and hard-to-process mineral resources.
China reports major gains in mineral exploration drive
