The epochal "Pingtan Closure", which refers to the building of an integrated customs supervision and management system in the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone in Fujian province, was officially implemented on July 15.

Staff operate on an round-island supervision system at a customs surveiliance center in the Pingtan Comprehensive Pilot Zone, July 14. [Photo/pingtan.gov.cn]

The local newspaper Pingtan Times published a retrospective on how the colossal project got off the ground three years ago and overcame many hurdles along the way.

Campaign of persuasion

"Pingtan Closure" covers the entire 342-sq-km Pingtan Island, which is an unprecedented range as the biggest single customs supervision area in China previously was confined to just 11 sq kilometers, said Ma Donggen, deputy director of the Pingtan Economic Planning Bureau.

In 2011, authorities in Fujian only planned a 10-sq-km zone in Jinjing district for customs operation, but then another 20-sq-km plot of land in Xinfu Bay district was added. But this still seemed far from enough.

The problem was assuring the central authorities that Pingtan would be capable of carrying out customs measures on the whole island. At that point, Mou Xinsheng, then head of General Administration of Customs (GAC), became the go-to guy for Pingtan, according to Ma.

On Sept 5, Wu Bangguo, then Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress, made an inspection tour of Pingtan, where local officials presented Wu their ambitious development ideas again with great detail.

Wu questioned the idea of building an unprecedentedly large customs supervision and management system in Pingtan.

"Can customs be functional in such a big island with so many people?" he asked.

"No problem," replied Mou immediately and emphatically.

Mou's answer was said to be key to the central authorities' finally granting approval to the "Pingtan Closure" project.

On Nov 18 that year, the State Council issued a development plan for Pingtan, calling for a more relaxed customs procedure by setting up two customs checkpoints with different levels of stringency.

The central government also urged Pingtan to make innovations in customs clearance methods and accelerate the construction of related facilities.

Elbow grease

The construction of "Pingtan Closure" was much more difficult than anticipated. There were five major hurdles: the location of the other customs checkpoints, a comprehensive monitoring system for the whole island, an information system for two customs checkpoints, supporting customs facilities at port areas in Aoqian town and Jinjing Bay district, and the preliminary heavy work in necessary to begin the project, said the newspaper.

The second customs checkpoint was locked in at the Nianggong village in southwest Pingtan because of the Haixia Bridge, which is the only overland entrance and exit of Pingtan Island. But the workers had to stand up against geographic conditions.

The construction of the checkpoint kicked off in April 2013 and was finished about one year later.

The setup of the information system was another exhausting project, since it would require a totally new method of customs management.

To solve the problem, Fuzhou Customs gathered 100 elite staffers to prepare action plans and compile customs rules in July 2013. The team pulled off the tasks in only 150 days, which was about four times faster than the normal speed.

After consulting with more than 100 experts and debugging numerous issues, the information system was put into use in May 2014.

To enhance customs supervision, Pingtan also built a monitoring system with 56 monitoring sites and 112 cameras in its coastal areas.

On May 16, a joint inspection team from GAC, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the State Administration of Taxation, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and Fujian's government announced that the three major customs platforms for the "Pingtan Closure" – namely the customs checkpoints, the round-island customs supervision system and the information system – passed quality assessment and were set for operation.

Looking back, it is fair to say that the project was a miracle that started from scratch, Ma said.

"We had only two or three people on this project at the very beginning," he said. "We didn't even have an office, and we didn't know how this 'Pingtan Closure' thing was going to shake down in the end."