First cultural bonded business handled in Hainan

Officials carry out inspection procedures on the well-known masterpiece The Oriental Dream by Jean Lecomte du Nouy after it entered Haikou Comprehensive Bonded Zone on Dec 18.[Photo/Hainan Daily]

Inspection procedures were carried out on Dec 18 for the well-known masterpiece The Oriental Dream by Jean Lecomte du Nouy after it entered Haikou Comprehensive Bonded Zone. It marked the first cultural bonded business handled in the Hainan Free Trade Port since the release of the master plan for the construction of the Hainan FTP on June 1. 

The painting was imported by a Hainan-based company on Dec 16.

"Cultural bonded business is one of the business types for Haikou Comprehensive Bonded Zone, and it is also an important development direction for the Hainan FTP to develop cultural industries," said Qiu Jinchang, director of the Investment Promotion Office of the Haikou Comprehensive Free Trade Zone Management Committee.

Coupled with the efficient coordination of different government departments, the work arrived in Haikou smoothly, Qiu added. 

"We chose to settle here mainly because the advantageous policies of the Hainan FTP to the cultural industry," said the person-in-charge of a Hainan trading company who revealed that in the future, hundreds of foreign cultural treasures will enter Haikou and that an international art exchange exhibition will also be held in March next year.

According to officials, the first entry of the painting has helped deepen the supervision process for the implementation of bonded warehousing and display of artworks. It has also improved the supervision model for the entry of cultural relics and cultural artworks from abroad, as well as simplified the filing procedures for cultural artworks.

Cultural bonding refers to the innovative practice of using the preferential policies of special customs supervision zones in the process of introducing cultural works into bonded zones. The move promotes cross-border transactions of cultural products due to exemption from customs duties and import value-added taxes.