Through the implementation of joint incentives, the list of benefits for enterprises is being extended, and financial difficulties faced by AEO enterprises are being addressed through coordinated efforts. On December 24, 2025, it was announced at a press conference on the sustained high-quality development of AEO in the province that since the beginning of the year, Shijiazhuang Customs, the Provincial Department of Commerce, and the Hebei Financial Regulatory Bureau, among other departments, have introduced measures to continuously strengthen AEO joint incentives, advance the high-quality development of AEO in Hebei Province, and support Hebei in building a high-level opening-up structure.
Measures have been optimized to continuously extend the list of benefits available to AEO enterprises. Customs AEO Advanced Certification is renowned as a "Green Passport for International Trade." The province places high importance on the cultivation of AEO enterprises. In August 2024, Shijiazhuang Customs, the Provincial Department of Commerce, and six other departments researched and issued the "Ten Measures of Hebei Province to Support the High-Quality Development of Customs Advanced Certification Enterprises," which became an effective initiative to promote the high-quality development of AEO enterprises in the province. To further improve the cultivation, certification, and joint incentive work for AEO enterprises and better serve their high-quality development, in July of this year, Shijiazhuang Customs and the Provincial Department of Commerce extensively solicited opinions and suggestions from enterprises through questionnaires and symposiums. They jointly convened a promotion meeting for the "Ten Measures" with relevant departments and banking financial institutions, engaging in in-depth discussions on further enriching and improving the list of preferential measures for AEO enterprises. After thorough research, based on the "Ten Measures," two new member units were included, and the incentive measures were enriched and optimized, resulting in the formation of the "Several Measures of Hebei Province to Support the High-Quality Development of Customs Advanced Certification Enterprises."
The "Several Measures" primarily include 12 aspects: strengthening the cultivation of high-quality enterprises, providing reward fund support, enhancing international market expansion, improving trade facilitation, applying innovative service policies, optimizing export tax rebate services, increasing the efficiency of environmental impact assessment approvals, strengthening credit policy support, optimizing credit insurance services, enhancing intellectual property protection, intensifying policy promotion and training, and establishing a coordinated customs-local service model. Among these, the seventh item, "Increasing the Efficiency of Environmental Impact Assessment Approvals," and the tenth item, "Strengthening Intellectual Property Protection," are newly added measures. These are convenience policies formulated by the ecological environment and market supervision departments specifically for AEO enterprises, including incorporating key projects of AEO enterprises into the EIA appointment platform to provide precise, full-process tracking services. Approval efficiency is enhanced through measures such as early involvement, acceptance with missing documents, and parallel approval. Efficient pre-examination services are provided for patent applications submitted by eligible AEO enterprises in the high-end equipment manufacturing and energy-saving environmental protection industries. Priority recommendations are given to eligible patent priority examination requests from AEO enterprises, and efficient handling is provided for the acceptance of trademark registration, renewal, transfer, pledge registration of exclusive rights, and recordal of license agreements for AEO enterprises.
Tangible financial incentives are provided, with newly certified AEO enterprises eligible for a 150,000 yuan reward. The Provincial Department of Commerce, as a co-publisher of the "Several Measures," has always regarded the cultivation and certification of AEO enterprises as a key lever to enhance the quality of foreign trade entities in the province and promote high-quality development of foreign trade. In supporting the high-quality development of Customs Advanced Certification Enterprises, the Department of Commerce has implemented numerous pro-enterprise initiatives.
Enterprises are cultivated with precision to solidify the foundation for foreign trade development. The Department focuses on high-quality enterprises in the foreign trade sector, establishing a full-chain mechanism of "targeted screening - key recommendation - follow-up cultivation." It specifically targets key entities such as enterprises with large import-export volumes, high-tech product exporters, provincial-level foreign trade comprehensive service enterprises, and "Specialized, Refined, Unique, and Innovative" enterprises, continuously sorting and screening high-quality foreign trade enterprise resources. In close collaboration with Shijiazhuang Customs, the screened high-quality enterprises are prioritized for inclusion in the "AEO Key Cultivation Enterprise Directory," where they receive customized cultivation services to accelerate the certification process. Since 2024, a number of provincial high-quality enterprises, including CSSC (Handan) Peric Special Gases Co., Ltd., Visionox (Guan) Technology Inc., and Junlebao Dairy Group Co., Ltd., have successfully obtained AEO certification. Simultaneously, a three-level (provincial, municipal, county) AEO enterprise coordination mechanism between customs and local authorities has been established jointly with Shijiazhuang Customs, achieving comprehensive liaison services to promptly resolve various challenges enterprises face in credit cultivation, certification, and production operations, ensuring the cultivation work yields tangible results.
Policy training is strengthened to empower enterprises and facilitate quality upgrades. According to the province-wide free foreign trade training plan of the Department of Commerce, training sessions on Customs Advanced Certification Enterprise policies have been organized jointly with Shijiazhuang Customs for two consecutive years. Customs experts, representatives from AEO enterprises, and responsible officials from financial institutions are invited to explain policies or engage in exchanges with enterprises on topics such as AEO international mutual recognition, application procedures, and available facilitation measures. Over the past two years, cumulative training has exceeded 6,000 participants, achieving favorable results.
The capital reward system is implemented to reduce certification costs for enterprises. Utilizing central government funds, a one-time reward of 150,000 yuan has been allocated for newly certified AEO enterprises each year since 2024, a policy set to continue for three years. Furthermore, cities, counties, and districts with the capacity are encouraged to provide certain financial support to enterprises that pass AEO recertification. In September of this year, the Department of Commerce disbursed reward funds totaling 6.45 million yuan to enterprises newly certified in 2024, allowing them to genuinely enjoy the tangible benefits of the policy.
Financial support acts as an escort, establishing special approval green channels for AEO enterprises. The Hebei Financial Regulatory Bureau consistently adheres to the fundamental purpose of financial services serving the real economy. The Bureau actively guides banking and insurance institutions within its jurisdiction to leverage their functional advantages, supporting key foreign trade enterprises, including those with Customs Advanced Certification, in stabilizing orders, expanding markets, and cultivating new growth points in foreign trade.
Credit fund support is continuously strengthened. The list of AEO enterprises is promptly forwarded to banking institutions within the jurisdiction, requiring them to proactively connect, build a multi-level service system, and provide convenient, differentiated financial services. Efforts to increase credit allocation are intensified, offering specific specialized services such as export credit insurance policy financing for AEO enterprises. Concurrently, major banking institutions within the jurisdiction have correspondingly refined their credit policies and established special approval green channels. By the end of October, the credit balance provided by provincial banking institutions to support AEO enterprises reached 285.791 billion yuan, an increase of 22.67% since the beginning of the year. Among this, export credit insurance policy financing issued without mortgage guarantees amounted to 687 million yuan.
Credit insurance services are continuously optimized. The role of export credit insurance in counter-cyclical and cross-cyclical adjustment is actively utilized, supervising relevant insurance institutions to open "claim settlement green channels" for eligible AEO enterprises and actively apply fast claim service mechanisms such as "pay on demand" and "simplified survey." By the end of October, Sinosure's Hebei Branch had provided export business insurance coverage totaling $5.92 billion for 80 AEO enterprises in the province, a year-on-year increase of 25.5%.
Active contributions are made to stabilizing the province's foreign trade work. While focusing on supporting the development of AEO enterprises, measures are also taken to support the construction of free trade zones and overseas warehouses, and to guide banking institutions in setting up special quotas for foreign trade import and export, thereby aiding the province's foreign trade stabilization efforts. Particularly since the beginning of this year, in collaboration with customs, commerce, development and reform, and other departments, a separate foreign trade segment has been created within the support mechanism for financing coordination for small and micro enterprises, increasing credit loans to eligible small and micro foreign trade enterprises. By the end of October, cumulative visits had been made to 35,000 foreign trade enterprises, including 30,900 small and micro foreign trade enterprises, with cumulative credit approval amounting to 168.492 billion yuan and disbursements reaching 100.411 billion yuan.
Comments