General

The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward "accelerating the construction of free trade pilot zone and Hainan free trade port" and "implementing the promotion strategy of free trade pilot zone". The vigorous development of free trade zone ports has shown the world a vibrant China and injected positive energy into the world economic recovery. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, up to now, there are 21 pilot free trade zones in China. With the launching of pilot free trade zones, free trade reform and innovation are gradually entering the "deep water zone". The reporter noted that in the recent period, the respective pilot trade zones have launched a series of reform and innovation practices in line with local realities and geographical advantages to stimulate the vitality of institutional innovation at a deeper level.

As China's first national pilot free trade zone, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone will celebrate its 10th anniversary in 2023. Gong Zheng, the mayor of Shanghai, pointed out in his government work report at the two sessions of the Shanghai Municipal People's Congress recently that in 2023, Shanghai should promote the implementation of the action plan for the construction of free trade pilot zones and new areas adjacent to the port, implement a greater degree of open pressure test, deepen the pilot of high-level open foreign exchange management reform for cross-border trade and investment, comprehensively implement 23 municipal special support policies to accelerate the construction of coastal cities, and promote more high-quality projects to the source of power International hydrogen energy valley and other characteristic industrial parks gather.

According to the report of Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, this year the region proposed to promote the open and innovative development of finance, speed up the construction of the international financial asset trading platform, speed up the construction of the international reinsurance business platform, and support the development of China's integrated circuit co-insurance body. Within the year, 100 financial institutions and investment enterprises of all kinds will be introduced; The first legal person insurance company in the new area will be set up to build a financial leasing industry highland, support enterprises in the region to speed up listing, and pilot banking institutions will provide R&D loans to science and technology enterprises to improve the level of small and micro enterprises in financial services technology.

Shandong Province also recently issued the "China (Shandong) Pilot Free Trade Zone Deepening Reform and Innovation Plan", which upgraded the Shandong Free Trade Zone from version 1.0 to version 2.0, and proposed reforms in many aspects including developing cross-border trade, actively promoting the development of the Free Trade Zone and the construction of the Free Trade Zone. The plan clearly states that we should give full play to the role of the pilot free trade zone as a new highland for reform and opening up in the new era, comprehensively enhance the leading role of Shandong's high-level opening up, and launch 25 measures from the construction of a high-level institutional opening up pilot zone, the building of a modern industrial development cluster, the formation of an innovative marine economic activity zone, the building of the Yellow River Basin ecological protection and high-quality development leading zone, and plan to 2025, We will basically establish an institutional system that is compatible with the strategic positioning and the development of an open economy, and form a market-oriented, law-based and international business environment. Especially in the field of financial innovation, the plan proposes to launch innovative exploration of asset securitization including green finance and REITs (real estate investment trusts).

It can be seen from the plan that the Shandong Free Trade Zone pays more attention to differential exploration in the fields of marine economy, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River basin, and RCEP economic and trade cooperation; Pay more attention to building a modern industrial system and carry out institutional innovation based on the whole industrial chain; Pay more attention to deep participation in global industrial division and cooperation, and strengthen cooperation with RCEP countries.

In the southwest region, Chengdu has issued Several Measures to Promote the Reform and Innovation of Trade and Investment Facilitation in the Chengdu Pilot Free Trade Zone, covering six parts and seven measures, including improving trade convenience, investment convenience, international logistics convenience, financial service real economy convenience, exploring the judicial protection function for trade and investment convenience, and promoting coordinated reform and opening up. This will give the Chengdu Pilot Free Trade Zone greater reform autonomy, deepen the reform and innovation of trade and investment facilitation, and further stimulate the vitality of market players. According to this document, the Chengdu Free Trade Zone will also support the development of import trade innovation, support the development of offshore trade, promote the "two ends outside" bonded maintenance business, improve the convenience of international logistics, propose to speed up the construction of air passage, etc., and actively give play to the advantages of the local cultural and tourism industry, carry out tourism cooperation with Hong Kong and Macao, Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

Hainan Province was born and prospered due to reform and opening up. Now, 60 tasks of the three-year action of Hainan Free Trade Port System Integration and Innovation have been fully completed. It is understood that 134 institutional innovation cases have been released in the three years of action, of which 8 have been replicated and promoted by the State Council to the whole country, and 6 have been praised by the State Council. In 2023, Hainan Province will further deepen institutional integration and innovation, launch a new round of three-year action on institutional integration and innovation, and strengthen research and tackling key issues around key areas such as "bonded processing and off-island tax exemption"; We will deepen the market-oriented allocation reform of land, capital, technology, data and other factors, and resolutely remove all kinds of hidden barriers.

"In the whole year, the actual use of foreign capital in 21 pilot free trade zones was 222.52 billion yuan, accounting for 18.1% of the country. Among them, the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries was 86.34 billion yuan, an increase of 53.2% year on year." Guo Tingting, Deputy Minister of Commerce, disclosed at the recent 2022 Business Work and Operation Conference held by the National Development and Reform Office.

At the same time, all localities have continued to innovate and improve the level of trade liberalization and facilitation. In 2022, their respective pilot trade zones made new progress with determination and bold exploration. Guo Tingting said that in 2023, it will 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 circuit, biomedicine, high-end equipment manufacturing, etc; It will also take the initiative to dock with international high-standard economic and trade rules, strengthen stress testing in the pilot free trade zone and the free trade port, steadily expand the institutional opening of rules, regulations, management, standards and other systems, and accumulate experience and explore ways to deepen the reform in relevant domestic fields. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.