The Baotou bureau of commerce and Baotou customs – located in Baotou city, in North China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region ̶ recently assisted in the installation of smart checkpoints for customs supervision sites and improved the level of intelligent management of those sites.

The initiative has adopted a reservation clearance mechanism to optimize the coal customs clearance process, improve its laboratory testing capacity and reduce the detention time of goods at the local Mandula port.

"The single-day cargo volume at the port has continuously hit a record high and many domestic cargo owners are more and more confident in handing over their orders to us," said Ba Yuxiang, head of Honglu Customs Brokerage Co, which has been engaged in the import and export trade at Mandula Port in Baotou for many years.

In one commercial venture, the enterprise plans to export hundreds of commercial vehicles to Mongolia to further expand its international trading capacity.

The city of Baotou is continuing to open up its economy to the outside world in the form of burgeoning foreign trade. From January to May this year, the total value of imports and exports hit 9.19 billion yuan ($1.37 billion), ranking it second in Inner Mongolia autonomous region. On June 27, inbound goods at Mandula Port exceeded the 16,500-metric-ton mark, a record since the port was opened.

Investment promotions for the city have also yielded great results. Baotou indirectly utilized foreign capital of $39.22 million in the first half of 2022 by connecting with 29 foreign-funded enterprises. To date, the city has invested in 25 overseas enterprises in countries involved in the "Belt and Road Initiative", with a total contractual investment of $85.46 million.