Xinhua News Agency, Beijing, December 30 (Xinhua) -- On the 30th, the "China ** Daily" published an article "The "Wild Goose Array" in the Pilot Free Trade Zone is Moving Forward to a New Journey of Higher-level Opening-up. According to the article, Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei signed an action plan for the coordinated development of the pilot free trade zone, and the Guangxi pilot free trade zone established five coordinated development zones......Recently, new progress has been made in the construction of the pilot free trade zone.
* The Economic Work Conference pointed out that high-level opening-up will be expanded. Experts said that as a new highland of opening up, the pilot free trade zone should continue to explore new paths for opening up, fully connect with international high-standard economic and trade rules, take high-level opening-up as the guide and institutional innovation as the core, achieve qualitative improvement, and better play the role of "experimental field" and "vanguard" in promoting high-quality economic development.
Source**, Xinhua News Agency).
Subheading) Sowing Improved Seeds in the "Experimental Field" and Opening up a New Chapter in the Development Spectrum.
Without the negative list of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, there would be no Mei'ankang. Recalling the company's founding experience, Si Rong, CEO of Meiankang, was deeply impressed.
At the time of its establishment in 2015, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has liberalized the access of foreign-funded certification bodies. Mei'ankang only took half a month to get the business license, and the company quickly settled in Jinqiao, Pudong, becoming the first foreign-funded certification body after the expansion of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone. Si Rong said, "Over the years, the company's business has flourished without the high-quality business environment of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, which is inseparable from China's continuous expansion of opening up." ”
In today's opening up, negative list management has become the norm, but it was still new 10 years ago. Yang Zhengwei, director of the Department of Coordination of Free Trade Zone Port Construction of the Ministry of Commerce, said that an important purpose of the establishment of the pilot free trade zone is to test the negative list management model.
In September 2013, China's first free pilot zone, the China (Shanghai) Free Pilot Zone, was inaugurated and put into operation, and for the first time, a negative list was used to manage foreign investment in China. In the past ten years, the negative list of the pilot free trade zone has gone through 7 times, from the initial 190 items to the current 27 items, the manufacturing industry items have been cleared, and the access to the service industry has been greatly relaxed, witnessing China's determination and action to steadily expand opening up.
Not only the negative list management, but also the facilitation model with the international "single window" as the core, the "separation of licenses" and other management reforms, etc., the pilot free trade zone took the lead in implementing and replicating and promoting 302 institutional innovation achievements across the country, and bravely became the "vanguard" of reform and opening up in the new era.
A number of world-leading industrial clusters have blossomed in the pilot free trade zone. The Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has established a modern industrial system with six major industries as the core: "China Chip", "Innovative Drug", "Intelligent Manufacturing", "Blue Sky Dream", "Future Vehicle" and "Data Port".The Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone is home to more than 10,000 oil and gas enterprises, and the scale of bonded fuel oil bunkering ranks fifth ...... in the worldAccording to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, the pilot free trade zone contributes 18 percent of the country's land area with less than 4/1,000 of the country's land area4% of foreign investment and 186% of the import and export **, to create a new era of industrial innovation and development "new benchmark".
In the past ten years, from 0 to 22, the pilot free trade zone has expanded its area and increased efficiency, forming a new pattern of reform and opening up covering the east, west, north, south and central, coordinating the coastal, inland and border areas, seeking common development, promoting innovation and sharing results, and the dividends of the pilot free trade zone have been released more widely and stronger, becoming a "booster" for building a new development pattern.
It can be said that the pilot free trade zone has become a 'test field' for China's institutional and mechanism innovation, a 'growth pole' for industrial agglomeration and development, and a 'new highland' for expanding opening up and cooperation. Huang Jianzhong, president of the Shanghai International Society and dean of the School of International Economics and Trade of Shanghai University of International Business and Economics, said.
Subheading) New Starting Point, New Opportunities Steadily implement the promotion strategy.
A good seed, a nursery, a forest. Standing at a new starting point in the next decade, it is necessary to make greater efforts to promote the bold breakthrough, bold experimentation and independent reform of the pilot free trade zone, promote the experience of "experimental fields" on a larger scale, and give full play to the "leading goose" effect.
From the perspective of the opening model, the pilot free trade zone is a major breakthrough in the independent opening model. Cui Weijie, vice president of the International Economic Cooperation Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, explained that China's special customs supervision areas and pilot free trade zones belong to the free trade zone defined by the World Customs Organization, but the pilot free trade zone has expanded from the special customs supervision area that is mainly adapted to the development of manufacturing and goods, and has explored a new path and new model for the policy system originally limited to the park to expand to the outside the zone and even the whole countryThe expansion of resources related to the distribution of "services" meets the new requirements of the global service industry and the expansion of services, and also adapts to the new trend of the development of international economic and trade rules.
This kind of courageous breakthrough has yielded fruitful results in institutional innovation. "The negative list for foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zone, the establishment of a free ** account (FT account), and the reform of the commercial registration system are the most influential and highest-value institutional innovations. Fu Zhengping, dean of the Free Trade Zone Comprehensive Research Institute of Sun Yat-sen University, said.
This kind of courage to make breakthroughs has strengthened confidence and determination in deepening reform and opening up. According to Zhao Xiaolei, dean of the Free Zone Research Institute of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, the pilot free trade zone takes the construction of a new system of open economy as the strategic traction, and the outstanding value of the ten-year pilot is to deepen reform and expand opening up, which has greatly promoted the development of China's open economy.
This kind of courage to make breakthroughs is also where the confidence lies in achieving a higher level of opening up. The relevant person in charge of the Management Committee of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone said that it is necessary to benchmark the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries with a high level of openness and market, systematically connect with international economic and trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA), and "try everything" for the rules and provisions that meet the needs of China's reform and opening up.
At present, the great changes unseen in a century are deeply interpreted. The process of globalization has been hampered and protectionism has risen;The great power game has intensified, and security issues have become more prominentTechnological change is changing with each passing day, and digitalization and greening are accelerating the reconstruction of international economic and trade rules. The construction of the pilot free trade zone must face the challenges and seize the opportunities.
The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China proposed to implement the strategy of upgrading the free pilot zone.
The key to implementing this strategy is to work 'upgrading'. Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce, said that the docking of international high-standard economic and trade rules should be improved, the level of market access should be improved, and the integration of reform systems and collaborative innovation should be improved.
In the view of many experts, the new breakthrough in the construction of the pilot free trade zone should seize the opportunity of the reconstruction of international economic and trade rules, and realize the transformation from passive acceptance to active integration and active participation in the formulation as soon as possible. In June 2023, the "Several Measures for Promoting Institutional Opening-up in Conditional Pilot Free Pilot Zones and Free Ports with International High Standards" was issued, and it took the lead in actively carrying out pilot projects in five qualified pilot free trade zones in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin, Fujian, and Beijing, as well as the Hainan Free ** Port. In December, the "Overall Plan for Promoting High-level Institutional Opening-up in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Zone in Comprehensively Aligning with International High-standard Economic and Trade Rules" was released. Experts said that this is undoubtedly an important measure for the construction of the pilot free trade zone to move towards a wider field, higher level and deeper institutional opening-up.
To make a new breakthrough in the construction of the pilot free trade zone, we must also seize the opportunity of the digital economy and the great development of digital economy, make good use of the advantages of the rapid development and good momentum of China's digital economy, and form a Chinese plan in the emerging field of global economy and trade. "We can consider establishing a digital economy free zone that meets the needs of the open development of the digital economy, mainly focusing on the agglomeration and allocation of digital elements to carry out reform and opening up exploration, and explore new paths and accumulate new experience for driving the national digital economy and digital development. Cui Weijie thinks.
Subheading) Take institutional innovation as the core and aim at key breakthroughs.
To vigorously implement the upgrading strategy of the pilot free trade zone at a new starting point, we must grasp the core of institutional innovation. This has become the consensus of the interviewed experts and the relevant persons in charge of some of the management committees of the pilot free trade zones. In their view, it is important to enhance the ability to benchmark high standards of international economic and trade rules, continue to optimize the business environment and improve the level of linkage development.
After ten years of construction, 'the fruits of the low places have been picked', and it is becoming more and more difficult to create the first case of institutional innovation in the country, and the reform needs to understand and tap institutional innovation from a deeper level. Fu Zhengping said that it is necessary to strengthen integrated and differentiated institutional innovation, and do a good job in risk testing and stress testing in terms of international economic and trade rules with high standards.
More importantly, it is necessary to intensify the "first and first trial". "Adopt a variety of ways to substantively give their respective pilot trade zones greater autonomy in reform in key areas and key links, further enhance the level of institutional innovation, benchmark new international economic and trade rules, and further promote institutional innovation in key areas. Cui Weijie suggested that innovative empowerment methods should substantially enhance the reform and opening up innovation authority of the pilot free trade zonePromote the transformation of "catalog-style" decentralization represented by the bonded maintenance catalogue to comprehensive empowerment.
In terms of optimizing the business environment, Fu Zhengping suggested that the World Bank's latest business-friendly environment standard system and domestic and foreign best practices should be benchmarked, and a holistic construction plan should be put forward in terms of the business environment, a long-term monitoring and regular evaluation mechanism for the business environment should be established, and the overall strategy and implementation of the plan should be continuously adjusted according to the actual situation.
Ten years of hard work to start a new journey, and step on the peak to see the eyes. The ten years of growth of the pilot free trade zone have created a vivid example of promoting reform through opening up and development through reform, and will surely continue to write a new chapter of higher-level opening-up and higher-quality development with institutional innovation as the core, more distinctive differentiation exploration as the starting point, and advanced industrial clusters as the carrier. (ENDS).