Suzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and Taicang Inspection and Quarantine Bureau signed a cooperation agreement on Feb. 22 on the operation of "virtual seaport", an act of innovation and reform in exploring new ways of commodity inspection and quarantine for hinterland regions. The foreign trade enterprises in SIP will thus benefit from the new mode of inspection and quarantine with "faster speed, less cost, and better economic results". The act was taken in positive response to the call of Jiangsu Provincial authorities to "build Taicang Port into a trunk line of container shipping of Shanghai international shipping center and the largest port in Jiangsu Province", and to the uplifting of modern international level of Suzhou Municipality. Present to witness the signing were Mei Zhengrong, Vice-mayor of Suzhou, and Guo Xiliang, Deputy Head of Jiangsu Provincial Inspection and Quarantine Bureau.

Presently, there are 30,000 foreign-invested or export-oriented domestic enterprises in the Suzhou region, and in SIP alone, there are over 2,900 large scale foreign-invested enterprises. Suzhou's import and export volume in 2006 exceeded 170 billion US dollars with shipment of 75 million standard containers. On Aug. 28k, 2007, SIP Comprehensive Bonded Zone, the first of its kind in China, was inspected and approved by 9 ministries, and the construction of a modern commercial and trade logistic center the improvement of customs clearance efficiency was thus put on the urgent agenda to boost the regional economy. At the 9th meeting of China-Singapore Steering Committee in July 2007, Vice-premier Wu Yi called on SIP to build a "demonstration zone of modern commercial and trade logistic center based on virtual ports". It is in such background that Suzhou Inspection and Quarantine Bureau and Taicang Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, under the coordination of Jiangsu Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, stepped up cooperation in building the virtual seaport at Taicang.

By virtual port of Suzhou, the functions of Taicang Port are extended to Suzhou Industrial Park, and Suzhou is regarded as port of loading or destination with checkpoint and container function areas to conduct all port procedures such as customs clearance, inspection and quarantine, etc. Also introduced into SIP are port affair companies, shipping companies, shipping agents, and customs clearance agents, and other service enterprises on the logistic chain to improve the logistic efficiency and reduce costs.