China News Service, July 10th-The Ministry of Commerce called today's online special press conference to introduce the sixth batch of reform pilot experiences in the Pilot Free Trade Zone. Tang Wenhong, director of the Free Trade Zone Port Department of the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that from January to May 2020, 18 free trade zones in the country actually used foreign capital of 60.25 billion yuan, less than four thousandths of the country’s land area, and achieved the national 17 % Of foreign investment.
Tang Wenhong introduced that the respective trade pilot zones coordinated the advancement of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, helped enterprises in the zone to fight the epidemic, promoted the resumption of production and production, strengthened corporate confidence, and stabilized market expectations. From January to May, the actual use of foreign capital in the original 12 free trade zones was 51.87 billion yuan, an increase of 18.4% year-on-year, which fully demonstrated the confidence of foreign-funded enterprises in the free trade zone.
Why do so many foreign-funded enterprises choose the Pilot Free Trade Zone? Tang Wenhong pointed out that China's major strategic achievements in epidemic prevention and control have laid a solid foundation for an excellent business environment under the current situation.
According to a recent survey by the Ministry of Commerce, foreign-invested enterprises believe that the three most attractive factors in the Pilot Free Trade Zone are: efficient government services, trade facilitation, and investment liberalization. The above-mentioned fields have also been the key reform and innovation directions of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, and have achieved good results. Let me briefly cite a few examples. As far as government services are concerned, we all know that the Pilot Free Trade Zone has always been a pathfinder and a leader in the reform of “delegating services”, with many reforms including separation of licenses, simple cancellation of enterprises, and approval of engineering construction projects. Go ahead and carry out experiments and continue to make breakthroughs. In terms of trade facilitation, actively innovate the import and export goods supervision model, and push the cost reduction and efficiency increase of the import shore.
Tang Wenhong introduced that of the 260 institutional innovations that have been formed in the Pilot Free Trade Zone, there are 60 achievements in optimizing government supervision, 76 in investment liberalization and facilitation, and 76 in trade facilitation. Institutional innovation is the lifeline of the reform of the Pilot Free Trade Zone, and corporate appeals are the driving force for institutional innovation. In the future, the Pilot Free Trade Zone will continue to attach importance to listening to and responding to corporate voices, forming more targeted, effective, and integrated results. With an open, transparent, and predictable foreign investment environment, foreign-funded enterprises will become increasingly interested in the Pilot Free Trade Zone.