China News Service, Beijing, September 19 (Chen Jing) Recently, the State Council of China issued the "Measures for Promoting the Reform and Innovation of Trade and Investment Facilitation in Pilot Free Trade Zones" (hereinafter referred to as "Measures"). What is the significance of the development of the free trade zone?
Zhao Jinping, a researcher at the Free Trade Pilot Zone Construction Research Center of the Counselor Office of the State Council, said in an interview with a reporter from China News Agency that the "Measures" released this time are a series of pragmatic, down-to-earth and easy-to-operate policy measures.
In terms of enhancing trade convenience, the "Measures" proposed to release the potential of new trade methods and support the development of offshore trade in the pilot free trade zone.
Zhao Jinping said that although the processing, production, import and export of commodities all take place in China and the corresponding import and export business procedures are performed, since processing trade is a business operated by multinational companies, settlements are often carried out by multinational companies overseas. For these multinational companies registered overseas, it is actually a kind of offshore trade carried out.
Becoming an international settlement center, the massive development of this financial service has a more obvious role in driving local related service industries.
Zhao Jinping pointed out that as China's status in global trade continues to rise, Chinese companies are gradually investing overseas and developing offshore trade.
This new type of international trade with great development potential and prospects was first tested in some pilot free trade zones in China.
"The next step is to further promote offshore trade in the 21 pilot free trade zones across the country, and at the same time, we must do a good job in the related supporting work required for offshore trade, such as increasing the corresponding services in foreign exchange management, authenticity review of financial institutions, etc. Strengthening and improving service efficiency. This is a very important part of trade facilitation." Zhao Jinping said.
In addition, one of the highlights of the Measures in improving investment convenience is to increase the opening up to Hong Kong and Macao investment, and delegate the approval authority for Hong Kong and Macao service providers to invest in the establishment of travel agencies in the Pilot Free Trade Zone by the provincial tourism authority. Pilot Free Trade Zone.
"This shows that in terms of investment facilitation, it is also through streamlining administration and delegating power to further provide convenience for enterprises and further increase the autonomy of the pilot free trade zone." Zhao Jinping said.
In terms of improving the convenience of international logistics, the Measures also have many bright spots.
For example, promote the construction of open passages, support the use of the fifth freedom rights by international airports in cities where the pilot free trade zone is located, and allow foreign airlines to carry passenger and cargo services from the city to third countries on the basis of equality and mutual benefit.
Support the pilot free trade zone to reform the "one-to-order system" of multimodal transport.
Zhao Jinping believes that this measure is of great significance for promoting the development of China's transportation industry.
In the past, the multimodal transportation method needed to fill in the corresponding documents in accordance with the corresponding requirements and procedures of various related systems such as air transportation, sea transportation, and road transportation.
The "Measures" proposed to support the pilot free trade zone to reform the "one-order system" of multimodal transport, and encourage the free trade zone to formulate and implement standardized multimodal transport documents.
Zhao Jinping believes that this greatly facilitates the efficiency of enterprises and greatly improves the efficiency and level of cargo transportation.
In terms of improving the convenience of financial services to the real economy, the "Measures" proposes to further enrich the varieties of commodity futures, accelerate the introduction of overseas traders to participate in futures transactions, and improve the regulatory policies for futures bonded delivery.
In addition, the "Measures" also proposes to explore the protection function of justice for trade and investment facilitation.
Zhao Jinping stated that the Measures also made corresponding provisions in terms of improving the judicial review of arbitration.
"The implementation of these 19 measures will play a vital role in promoting the reform and innovation of the pilot free trade zone, especially in enhancing the level of opening up." Zhao Jinping said.
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