The new China-Europe Freight Train-Shanghai service, bound for Germany, sets off from Hongqiao on a run late last year. [Photo/WeChat account: scofcom]

The Hongqiao area in East China's Shanghai city has been attracting more and more businesses just a year after the central government put forward a plan to build the Hongqiao International Hub for Opening-up, according to municipal officials.

Shanghai Customs recently issued 39 measures to support Hongqiao in its bid to become a commercial bridge connecting to global markets.

According to Shanghai Customs Director Gao Rongkun, they include five goals, including building Hongqiao into an international convention and exhibition hub and supporting the development of the area's key industries.

Supporting the China International Import Expo, or CIIE – which takes place in Hongqiao every year – is a key part of the custom office's efforts to help make Hongqiao an open and international hub.

Thanks to Shanghai Customs, some Japanese artworks exhibited in the trade in service exhibition area of the fourth CIIE last year were transferred from being exhibits to bonded commodities soon after the event wrapped up on Nov 10.

Continued optimization of the supervision process and improvements to guaranteed services offered by the China-Europe Freight Train have also become key measures undertaken by Shanghai Customs.

Last September, the first train on the new China-Europe Freight Train-Shanghai service set off from Hongqiao, heading for the city of Hamburg in Germany. By March this year, 14 such trains had shuttled between Shanghai and Hamburg.

They carried a total of 1,356 Twenty-foot Equivalent Units or TEUs – the standard industry measurement of containers – worth about 400 million yuan ($62.76 million).