China News Service, September 2nd. Tang Wenhong, Director of the Free Trade Zone and Port Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said today that from January to July 2020, there will be six pilot free trade zones in Shandong, Jiangsu, Guangxi, Hebei, Yunnan, and Heilongjiang, and Shanghai Lingang. The actual use of foreign capital in the new area is 13.11 billion yuan, and foreign trade imports and exports are 660.76 billion yuan, accounting for 5.8% and 10.8% of the provinces and cities where they are located, playing a positive role in stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment.
The Ministry of Commerce held a special press conference on the first anniversary of the construction of the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Lingang New Area of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone on the 2nd to introduce the relevant situation and answer reporters’ questions.
In response to the innovative measures and actual results achieved in the 6 pilot free trade zones including Shandong and the Lingang New Area of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone in helping to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, Tang Wenhong said that from January to July this year, 6 free trade The pilot zone and the Shanghai Lingang New Area actually utilized 13.11 billion yuan of foreign capital, and foreign trade imports and exports accounted for 660.76 billion yuan, accounting for 5.8% and 10.8% of the provinces and cities where they are located. They played a positive role in stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment.
Tang Wenhong introduced that the six pilot free trade zones including Shandong and the Shanghai Lingang New Area adhere to both epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, give full play to the pilot free trade zone’s pilot role, and take multiple measures to solve corporate financing difficulties and employment difficulties. , It is difficult to fulfill the contract, and many innovative measures have been introduced in accelerating industrial agglomeration and promoting the development of an open economy.
In terms of serving foreign trade and foreign-funded enterprises, the Qingdao area of Shandong has accelerated the construction of "international living rooms" such as Japan, and implemented a 144-hour visa-free transit policy for foreigners in some countries at the Qingdao port under the premise of preventing and controlling the epidemic; the Yantai area has established foreign-related personnel services Special classes and international charter flights for Japanese and Korean companies were launched to help more than 300 foreign employees from more than 20 companies return to work.
The Heihe area of Heilongjiang takes advantage of cooperation with Russia to assist Chinese medicine import and export enterprises to resume work and production, and assist enterprises in the import and export of epidemic prevention materials through cross-border e-commerce overseas warehouses.
In terms of supporting corporate financing facilitation, Lingang New Area took the lead in implementing innovative pilot projects such as one-off foreign debt registration and cross-border financing facilitation quotas for high-tech enterprises. The degree of facilitation of cross-border fund settlement and overseas financing was further improved, and financial institutions accelerated the gathering .
Jiangsu launched the "Guan Zhu Rong", in which financial institutions combine customs credit information and corporate credit data to implement credit evaluation and grant corresponding credit lines. Approval and credit can generally be completed within 20 working days, and the loan interest rate is lower than similar products.
Hebei has issued a total of 33 special support policy measures to promote relevant banks to provide 700 million yuan of credit lines to 39 companies in the Pilot Free Trade Zone.
In terms of promoting trade facilitation, the Youyiguan Port in Chongzuo District of Guangxi has realized the automatic release of various services such as port, bonded, and cross-border e-commerce at the same checkpoint, shortening customs clearance time by 80%, and reducing costs for enterprises by about 200 million yuan. The total import and export volume of Friendship Pass increased by 29.6% year-on-year.
The Honghe area of Yunnan Province has used the port logistics intelligent sorting system to enable the distribution and collection of reports to promote the transformation and upgrading of cross-border trade. In the first half of the year, Yunnan's exports to Vietnam increased by 41.8% year-on-year.
Tang Wenhong pointed out that the current international situation is still complex and severe, the world economy is in serious recession, and international trade and transnational investment will continue to be sluggish. However, under the strong leadership of the Party Central Committee, my country has achieved significant results in the overall planning of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development.
"I believe that with the in-depth advancement of system innovation in the pilot free trade zone and the continuous improvement of construction quality, it will make new contributions to stabilizing the basic market of foreign trade and foreign investment and building a new higher-level open economy," he said.