Pudong continuously improves its shipping financial service level, helping enterprises globally allocate funds
What are the "bottlenecks" when international ship management companies open free trade accounts? How to further speed up business operations? In order to connect the "last mile" of financial supporting services for international ship management formats, Pudong held an interpretation meeting on exclusive financial solutions for ship management.
On the afternoon of August 31st, the press conference on the "International Ship Management Free Trade Account Service Plan" was held at the roadshow hall of the Lujiazui Financial Technology Industry Park in Pudong New Area. The conference was jointly organized by the Shipping Service Office of Pudong New Area and the Cross border Financial Services Professional Committee of the Municipal Finance Society. It received strong support from the Lujiazui Management Bureau of the Free Trade Zone, the International Ship Management and Maritime Services Branch of the Shanghai International Shipping Promotion Association, and the Shanghai Development Bank. International ship management enterprises and related enterprises and institutions, as well as domestic and foreign commercial banks, participated in the conference.
Direct attack on the "pain points" of fund settlement operation in ship management enterprises
Launching exclusive services to solve the problem of "urgent difficulties and anxieties"
International ship management mainly provides technical management, crew management, safety management and other services for international navigation vessels. As a hub industry in the shipping service industry, it has strong allocation capabilities for global shipping resources such as ship supply, insurance, and maintenance. The reporter learned from the meeting that there are currently 107 international ship management enterprises in Pudong New Area, but they generally face pain points such as inconvenient capital inflows and outflows.
The free trade account is an integrated account of domestic and foreign currencies, with RMB as the main account and various currency seed accounts attached. It is managed through a "separate accounting" approach and has a risk firewall mechanism. The free exchange of domestic and foreign currency funds in the account, as well as the limited penetration of "first line" and "second line", greatly facilitate the investment and financing needs of enterprises in domestic and foreign currency.
In response to the urgent and difficult issue of cross-border settlement for international ship management enterprises, it was revealed at the meeting that the Pudong Shipping Office continues to actively promote cooperation with the Cross border RMB Business Department of the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China, and together with the cross committee, pays attention to the feelings of pilot enterprises and conducts extensive research. The FT account function is proposed to adapt to the frequent and high timeliness needs of ship management enterprise funds. The cross committee will prepare an exclusive financial service plan for ship management, supporting domestic and foreign commercial banks to provide convenient cross-border financial services for the international ship management industry.
With the joint efforts of various sectors, the International Ship Management Free Trade Account Service Plan was officially released to the public on August 2nd. The plan is an innovative attempt by the free trade account to serve the shipping industry. At the meeting, it was introduced that its introduction has three major innovative significance: firstly, it has achieved phased results in shipping finance. The task of preparing an exclusive plan for cross-border financial services was the action plan released by the Municipal Government Office in June this year to enhance the level of Shanghai's shipping service industry. The completion of the plan marks a phased progress in shipping finance. The second is to take the lead in achieving breakthroughs against international standards. The exclusive solution provides full process services for international ship management, including account opening, fund settlement, fund exchange, and compensation for foreign crew members. It achieves three major breakthroughs: integration of financial and shipping scenarios, integration with international single ship single account, and real-time settlement based on payment instructions. Compared to Singapore, it has comparative advantages such as low transaction fees and fast settlement. Thirdly, it helps to build a global fund settlement center for ship management. Encourage more domestic and foreign commercial banks to provide cross-border financial services, while reserving integrated reform interfaces such as taxation. Once breakthroughs are made, more enterprises will be gathered, greatly attracting the return of operating fees.
Since the launch of the International Ship Management Free Trade Account Service Scheme, it has attracted strong attention from international ship management companies. The purpose of the exclusive financial solution interpretation conference held in Pudong this time is to build a communication platform between enterprises and financial institutions, allowing enterprises to fully understand policies and make full use of exclusive financial services.
On site, the Cross border RMB Business Department of the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China promoted the policies and practices of the Shanghai Free Trade Account, interpreted the policy process and connotation of the FT account system around the opening of the international ship management account, and focused on explaining the service functions of the international ship management account, including fund settlement, exchange, etc.
The Shanghai Branch of Pudong Development Bank, a member unit of the cross committee, systematically interpreted the content of the plan, explaining the specific application of account opening services by citing case studies of ship management enterprise accounts, interpreting the connotation and practical operation of fund settlement and fund exchange one by one, and also looking forward to the prospects of salary services for foreign seafarers.
The cross committee chairman unit, Bank of China Shanghai Branch, based on Bank of China's full understanding of the financial needs of ship management enterprises, introduced Bank of China's comprehensive financial service plan from the aspects of account system, settlement facilitation, exchange rate preservation, and characteristic financial services, combined with Bank of China's global and comprehensive business advantages.
Assist enterprises in global fund allocation
Enhancing the level of shipping financial services
At the beginning of the establishment of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, the expansion and opening-up measures proposed to allow the establishment of foreign-owned international ship management enterprises. The Pudong Shipping Office has always attached great importance to introducing and cultivating international ship management enterprises, identifying and actively trying to solve the pain points of cross-border fund settlement in the ship management industry. The Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China also actively supports the cross commission leadership of the Shanghai banking industry, benchmarking the practices of countries and regions such as Singapore and Hong Kong, and forming an exclusive financial service plan for the free trade account of the international ship management industry. At present, a total of 29 companies have opened FT accounts, with cross-border settlement of nearly 3 billion yuan.
At the meeting, pilot enterprises stated that the original model faced pain points such as inconvenient cross-border payments due to the large amount of documents provided to domestic banks, difficulty for overseas companies to open accounts with overseas banks, and low communication efficiency. After the pilot, they experienced convenient opening and payment, high timeliness, and high communication efficiency services. At the same time, by opening a cross-border fund pool during the pilot of ship management cross-border fund inflows and outflows, it helps companies globally allocate funds and expand overseas markets. To this end, it is planned to open FT accounts for more overseas ship owners, collect ship management fees and some ship operation fees, and pay third-party fees such as flag state or classification societies.
At the meeting, a cross committee on-site Q&A session was also set up, where enterprises asked questions about FT account policies, program content, account opening, fund exchange and settlement business operations, and foreign seafarer compensation services. The Shanghai branch of the People's Bank of China and member units of the cross committee, as well as domestic and foreign banks, answered questions one by one.
Enterprises attending the meeting expressed that they have systematically studied the FT account policy and international ship management FT account service plan through this interpretation meeting, understood the key points of cross-border income and expenditure operations, and clarified the solution path to business practical problems. The attending bank had sufficient communication with enterprises, and expressed that they would deepen their business processes and practical issues, strengthen and improve financial services, and promote the settlement of funds in the ship management industry in Pudong.
The Pudong Shipping Office stated that the press conference is only the beginning of improving the convenience level of shipping financing and exchange. In the future, the Shipping Office will actively seek support from the Cross border RMB Business Department and Cross Commission of the Shanghai Branch of the People's Bank of China, promote domestic and foreign banks to leverage their own characteristics and advantages to increase financial service acceptance, strive to meet the cross-border settlement needs of shipping management enterprises, strengthen the promotion and application of the plan in the industry, mobilize shipping management enterprises to make good use of exclusive financial service solutions, improve business operation efficiency, and enhance the level of shipping financial services in Pudong New Area.
Text: Yang Zhenying
*Reprinted from official WeChat account released by Pudong
