General

Guo Tingting, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Commerce, said at the press conference on the business work and operation in 2022 held by the State Council Reform Office on February 2 that in 2023, the Ministry of Commerce will effectively perform the functions of the inter-ministerial joint conference office of the State Council Free Trade Pilot Zone in accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council. First, take the initiative to connect with international high-standard economic and trade rules, increase stress testing efforts in free trade pilot zones and free trade ports, steadily expand institutional opening of rules, regulations, management, standards and other systems, and accumulate experience and explore ways to deepen reform in relevant domestic fields. The second is to support the pilot free trade zone to carry out in-depth differential exploration and promote the open and innovative development of the whole industrial chain in key fields such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, high-end equipment manufacturing, etc. Third, we will replicate and promote more and better institutional innovations and further release the dividends of reform and opening up.

Guo Tingting said that for a long time, the Pilot Free Trade Zone (Hong Kong) has been carrying the major mission of China's adherence to all-round opening up and taking the initiative to release the positive effects of economic globalization. In 2022, their respective pilot trade zones made new progress by forging ahead and exploring boldly:

First, promote high-level opening up. The respective pilot trade zones have taken a series of opening measures in the field of investment and trade, giving full play to the leading role of opening up and making positive contributions to the development of foreign trade and foreign investment. From January 1, 2022, the new version of the negative list of foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zone has been implemented, and the manufacturing industry has been cleared and the service industry has been continuously expanded. In the whole year, 21 pilot free trade zones actually used 222.52 billion yuan of foreign capital, accounting for 18.1% of the country. Among them, the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries was 86.34 billion yuan, up 53.2% year on year. At the same time, all localities have continued to innovate and improve the level of international trade liberalization and facilitation. For example, Guangxi, Yunnan and Heilongjiang have innovated models to further promote the development of mutual trade among border residents. Shaanxi innovated the "customs declaration first, then packing" mode of cross-border e-commerce bulk cargo, and the customs clearance time was increased by 2 to 3 days. In 2022, the 21 pilot free trade zones will achieve a total import and export volume of 7.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 14.5% year on year, accounting for 17.8% of the national total.

Second, deepen reform and innovation. The Pilot Free Trade Zone adheres to promoting the improvement of government governance capacity through institutional innovation and driving the continuous optimization of business environment. In 2022, the Ministry of Commerce and relevant departments promoted the release of 56 documents supporting the construction of the pilot free trade zone, giving the pilot free trade zone more reform tasks. By the end of 2022, the provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central Government had delegated more than 5400 provincial administrative authorities to the Pilot Free Trade Zone, significantly reducing the level of approval. Shandong, Guangxi and other places have also innovatively carried out "negative list" decentralization.

Third, promote high-quality development. The Pilot Free Trade Zone actively explores and breaks the institutional and institutional barriers that hinder the gathering of innovative resources and elements at home and abroad, promotes the accelerated development of new industries, new formats and new models, and initially builds a number of industrial clusters with strong competitiveness. For example, Chongqing Xiyong District has formed a 100-billion-level intelligent terminal industrial cluster with an annual output of more than 100 million units; Wuhan District of Hubei Province has vigorously developed the optoelectronic information industry, gathering more than 16000 related enterprises.

Fourth, serve the major national strategy. The respective pilot trade zones have taken the initiative to actively promote cross-regional collaborative innovation. In 2022, Shandong, Henan, Sichuan and Shaanxi joined forces with the other five provinces and regions along the Yellow River to jointly build the Yellow River Basin Pilot Free Trade Zone Alliance. Together with the previously established joint conference mechanism, including the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Pilot Free Trade Zone, and the Yangtze River Delta Pilot Free Trade Zone Alliance, they will fully play the role of radiating and driving the new highland of reform and opening up, and inject new impetus into serving and promoting the implementation of major national strategies, especially major regional strategies.

Hainan Free Trade Port is also in full swing. Yang Tao, Director of the Comprehensive Department of the Ministry of Commerce, introduced at the press conference that the overall plan for the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port has been released for more than two years. In this process, the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port has progressed smoothly, and the overall progress has been fast and steady, powerful and orderly. In 2022, the Ministry of Commerce focused on the key point of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, anchored the key node of the operation of the whole island's customs closure, and fully supported the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port. The main work was done in three aspects: First, together with the relevant departments, it issued several policies and measures to support the accelerated construction of Yangpu Economic Development Zone, the opinions on promoting the high-quality development of foreign cultural trade and other documents, and continued to improve the policy system in the field of trade and investment, We will vigorously promote the implementation of relevant policies. Second, the second Consumer Expo was successfully held together with Hainan Province, and the participating enterprises and brands, buyers and professional visitors were significantly higher than the first one. Third, the "Trade and Investment Development Report of Hainan Free Trade Port" was released to comprehensively display the achievements made in trade and investment liberalization and facilitation.

With the joint efforts and promotion of all parties, Hainan Free Trade Port has flourished. Last year, Hainan actually used 24.44 billion yuan of foreign capital, up 7.1% year-on-year; The total import and export volume of international trade exceeded 200 billion yuan, up 36.8% year on year. The open economy has a strong momentum of development. During the Spring Festival this year, the supply and demand of Hainan's consumer market are booming, and the popularity of cultural tourism catering is booming.

Yang Tao said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will thoroughly implement the deployment of "accelerating the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port" put forward in the report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Under the overall guidance of the leading group to promote the comprehensive deepening of reform in Hainan, it will do a good job in the preparation of customs operation and pressure testing, and at the same time implement the relevant policies in the field of international trade and investment, and study and formulate the list of goods and articles prohibited and restricted from international trade import and export in Hainan Free Trade Port, We will do our best to hold the third Consumer Expo, promote the development of Hainan's open economy, and help the construction of Hainan Free Trade Port to make new breakthroughs.