On the afternoon of January 6, 2017, Ren Wen, division chief of Division I in Department of Policy Research, General Administration of Customs, was invited to give a lecture entitled “Belt and Road Initiative and China Customs” to the teachers and students of School of Public Administration. Professor Shuwen Wang, sub-dean of School of Public Administration, hosted the lecture.

Division chief Ren Wen has long been engaged in policy research on foreign trade and industries, as well as the analysis of the macroeconomic situation of imports and exports. She is an expert in policy research on customs, taxation and smuggling suppression. She has participated in the argumentation of the construction and planning of many major national development experimental zones, border economic cooperation zones and cross-border economic cooperation zones.

Division chief Ren Wen first briefly introduced the core content of Belt and Road Initiative, and made in-depth analysis from several aspects, including concepts, goals and mechanisms of Belt and Road Initiative. She pointed out that the “One Belt and One Road” takes advantage of international transport routes on land and connects major sea ports at sea, formulating the framework which consists of six corridors and six channels serving multiple countries and ports. By strengthening bilateral and multilateral cooperation, the Belt and Road Initiative will finally achieve policy coordination, facilities connectivity, unimpeded trade, financial integration and people-to-people bonds in the region. Next, division chief Ren Wen analyzed the position and role of the customs in Belt and Road construction. She pointed out the significant and active role the customs should play in establishing multi-dimensional transport network in the region, promoting trade and investment facilitation and conducting border control of currency flows through highlighting gatekeeping and services, as well as other aspects.

In the end, division chief Ren Wen analyzed the customs’ major tasks in Belt and Road construction, including linking interconnectivity through standard fusion, improving interconnectivity through trade facilitation, maintaining interconnectivity through safety and efficiency, supporting interconnectivity through technological innovation, guaranteeing interconnectivity through capacity building and facilitating interconnectivity through opening-up and cooperation. She pointed out that focusing on the three levels of point, line, and surface, China Customs will take the principle of “mutual exchange of information, mutual recognition of regulation and mutual assistance in law enforcement in port administration” as the guideline and concentrate efforts on major cooperative projects, so as to actively promote interconnectivity.

Through the exchanges with division chief Ren Wen, the teachers and students present became clearer about the role that the customs should play in the Belt and Road construction and the priorities of its work. They also had a clearer and more comprehensive understanding of the content of China’s “One Belt and One Road” Initiative. At the end of the lecture, Professor Shuwen Wang, on behalf of the teachers and students of School of Public Administration, thanked division chief Ren Wen for her wonderful explanations and encouraged students majoring in customs to link theories with practice and to reflect more often, in order to obtain more fruitful results in future scientific research activities.