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China Net Finance, September 23 (Reporter Li Chunhui) The Pilot Free Trade Zone, which has the important mission of “testing the system for the country,” has recently added new members. On the 21st, the State Council issued the master plan for the Beijing, Hunan and Anhui Pilot Free Trade Zones and the expansion plan for the Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone.
Prior to this, China successively approved the construction of pilot free trade zones in 18 provinces, showing a “1 + 3 + 7 + 1 + 6” pattern. With the addition of the three recently approved, China’s pilot free trade zones have grown to 21, and about two-thirds of the country’s provinces have “assigned” pilot free trade zones.
Among the three recently approved free trade zones, news of the establishment of a free trade zone in Beijing was “spoiled” at the Trade in Services Fair in early September; Hunan and Anhui free trade zones are located in the central region and will add new features to the “rise of central China” power. This year’s government work report proposes “adding pilot free trade zones and comprehensive free zones in the central and western regions.” Experts said the future establishment of free zones in western provinces is still worth waiting for.
The overall plan of the Beijing Free Trade Zone “Revealed”
Already at the Trade in Services Conference in early September, China announced that it will establish a pilot free trade zone in Beijing with technological innovation, open service industry and digital economy, to build a high-level open platform for coordinated development of Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei, and boost training. A new high-level reform and opening-up pattern.
On the 21st, the general plan of the Beijing Free Trade Zone was officially announced, and the proposed plan to “accelerate the creation of a pioneer zone for the expansion of the service industry and a pilot zone of digital economy.”
Mei Guanqun, associate researcher in the World Economy Division of the China International Economic Exchange Center, told China Net Finance that China’s trade in goods has always been strong, while trade in services and digital trade have been relatively weak. Through innovation and the practice of the free trade area, institutional arrangements and policy designs that lead to the development of trade in services and digital trade can be explored to promote the development of these two forms of trade on a larger scale and with higher quality.
Mei Guanqun said that trade in services and digital trade are expected to occupy an increasingly important position in the structure of international trade in the future. After the epidemic, the global trade in goods has declined significantly, but the rapid growth of new business forms of service industries that avoid direct contact between people and depend on the digital economy may become a major growth point for the international trade in the future.
“The Chinese market has enormous potential, and foreign investment is also more concerned. I hope that China’s service industry market will be more open, so that it can gain more space for development.” Mei Guanqun said: “The expansion of the service industry is very important to attract foreign investment.”
Many business formats in the service industry need to rely on digital media to become marketable. Highlighting the “digital economy” is one of the main characteristics of the Beijing Free Trade Zone.
At the press conference of the State Council Information Office on September 21, Yang Jinbai, the deputy mayor of Beijing, stated that the pilot reform efforts of the Beijing Free Trade Pilot Zone in the field of digital economy will be broken down and implemented, and policy documents to promote the development of the digital economy will be further implemented and strengthened. Policy preference and financial support.
Hu Qimu, principal investigator of the think tank on digital economy, told China Net Finance that the Beijing Free Trade Zone is the country’s first free trade zone with a digital economy as its main feature, and the orientation of “first try first “is obvious. Among its overall plans, the most significant and far-reaching impact is the trade-related digital mechanisms pilot program.
“This is closely related to our acceleration of the improvement of the market-oriented allocation system and factor mechanism. Our market-oriented data factor allocation mechanism is the last start among all factors of production, and it is also a basic mechanism of the digital economy. The development and expansion of application scenarios have a profound impact, “said Hu Qimu.
In April this year, the “Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on the creation of a more perfect factor market allocation system and mechanism” released, for the first time, “data” and factors traditional such as land, labor, capital and technology were included as one of the factors of production.
The Hunan and Anhui Free Zones contribute to the “rise of central China”
In addition to Beijing, Hunan and Anhui, which have recently been approved for the construction of free trade zones, they are central provinces, which are conducive to better serving national development strategies such as the “Rise of Central China”.
Mei Guanqun said that from the current macroeconomic situation, the “rise of central China” is perfect.
“In the past, we were an export-driven economy and the market was abroad, so the eastern region took the lead in development. As the country pays more and more attention to the domestic market, it reflects the geographic advantage of the central region. ” Mei Guanqun said that the central region has connectivity. The advantages of north-south and trans-east-west transport have strong market radiation capacity; and the current factor cost in the central region is relatively low, and compared to the east, it is a development slump, which is particularly conducive to the transfer of industries from the east or from abroad.
Hu Qimu said that the choice to build pilot free trade zones in the two central provinces of Hunan and Anhui is that, on the one hand, considering that the dividends of the system from deepening reforms in these regions remain significant, the marginal effect of building pilot free trade zones is relatively large. Also, from a location perspective, Anhui is close to the Yangtze River Delta and Hunan is located in the center of the Yangtze River Economic Belt. Both are provinces close to the economically developed regions. It is desirable to carry out industrial transfers from the surrounding economically developed regions. This is also the construction of the national circulation as the main body, dual national and international An important measure for a new pattern of development that promotes each other in a circular way.
The future free trade zone in the western provinces is worth waiting for
This year’s government work report proposed “adding pilot free trade zones and comprehensive free zones in the central and western regions.” After the approval of the two central provinces this time, it is also worth waiting for the future approval of new free zones in the western provinces.
Mei Guanqun said that in the past, China was opening up along the coast and along the river. Now, as the construction of the “Belt and Road” progresses, the western region is slowly shifting from the “tip of the opening” to the “front of the opening.” “If we want to build this kind of open border, we need institutional innovation, so the western region needs a free trade zone.”
Currently, some western provinces that do not have a free trade zone are actively preparing for the establishment of a free trade zone. According to previous Economic Information Daily reports, Lanzhou, Gansu Province, conducted policy training courses and seminars for the Pilot Free Trade Zone to explain in detail the general plan for the China Pilot Free Trade Zone (Gansu) and its 216 specific tasks and safeguard measures, emphasizing “Promote the application, use the application to promote construction”. Qinghai, Inner Mongolia and elsewhere also strongly expressed their views and actively pursued the establishment of pilot free trade zones.
So which western provinces are expected to establish free trade zones in the future? According to Mei Guanqun’s analysis, the establishment of the free trade zone is mainly to “point to area”. To expand the scope of the free trade zone, the provinces should not only highlight their own characteristics when applying for the plan, but also highlight the importance of the construction of the free trade zone to serve the country. Role in development strategy.
Mei Guanqun said that in the future, more provinces should participate in the construction of the pilot free trade zone, and the scope, breadth and depth of the pilot free trade zone will be further expanded.
Publisher: Xiao Changxi
