The Main Tasks for Improving the Systems and Mechanisms for High-Standard Opening Up

It is vital for us to remain committed to the basic state policy of opening to the outside world and continue our reform through opening up. Leveraging the strengths of China's enormous market, we should enhance our capacity for opening up while expanding international cooperation and developing new institutions for a higher-standard open economy.

First, steadily expanding institutional opening up

We must aim to meet world-class standards while also actively getting involved in the formulation of international rules. We should promote alignment with high-standard international economic and trade rules and harmonize rules, regulations, management, and standards relating to property rights protection, industrial subsidies, environmental standards, labor protection, government procurement, e-commerce, the financial sector, and other areas, in order to foster an institutional environment that is transparent, stable, and predictable.

We need to take the initiative by opening China's commodity, services, capital, and labor markets wider in an orderly manner and unilaterally granting broader access to the world's least developed countries.

To safeguard the WTO-centered multilateral trading system, we should fully participate in WTO reform, actively work to restore the normal operation of the WTO dispute settlement mechanism, and strive for the adoption of the first set of multilateral digital trade rules. Efforts should also be made to actively take part in the reform of global economic governance and to provide more global public goods.

We need to expand our globally-oriented network of high-standard free trade areas, take measures to become more open under the framework of free trade agreements, and take steps to incorporate rules on digital issues, environmental sustainability, and standards into such agreements. We should establish compliance mechanisms that align with prevailing international rules and step up efforts to ensure trade policy compliance, so as to optimize the environment for opening up and cooperation.

Second, deepening foreign trade structural reform

We must move faster to turn China into a strong trading nation by enhancing our position in the international division of labor and moving toward the medium- and high-end of the global value chain. We need to put in place a set of systems and policies to support the development of a strong trading nation and better coordinate trade policies with fiscal, tax, financial, and industrial policies. We should adopt new regulatory approaches for customs clearance, taxation, and foreign exchange, fostering an institutional environment that is conducive to the development of new models and forms of business. We should also accelerate reforms to integrate domestic and foreign trade.

The mechanisms for preventing and controlling trade risks should be improved, and our export control framework and trade remedy system also need to be refined. We must introduce supporting regulations and rules for the Export Control Law, establish a coordinated multi-stakeholder mechanism for addressing trade frictions, and reinforce the safeguards for ensuring national security in the trade sector.

Moves should be taken to upgrade trade in goods. We must work to expand new growth drivers for foreign trade, including trade in intermediate goods and green trade, and promote international cooperation on foreign trade product standards and conformity assessment procedures.

We should build commodity trading centers and global distribution centers, support various types of entities in developing logistics facilities overseas in a well-ordered way, and facilitate the growth of international logistics hubs, as well as hubs for the distribution of commodities and resources, in areas where conditions allow.

Innovative measures should be adopted to boost trade in services. We must fully apply the negative list for cross-border trade in services, promote comprehensive trials and demonstrations for expanding opening up of the service sector, and encourage specialized service organizations to enhance their capacity for providing international services. New types of transactions in offshore international trade should be created in areas where conditions allow. We should set up sound systems for cross-border financial services and move to diversify the supply of financial products and services.

Digital trade must also be bolstered in an innovative manner. Digital products, services, and technology, as well as data trade, should all be tapped to see digital technologies empowering all stages of trade. Integrated pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce should be promoted. Finally, we must continue to make a success of hosting major exhibitions such as the CIIE, China Import and Export Fair (the Canton Fair), China International Fair for Trade in Services, and the Global Digital Trade Expo.

Third, further reforming the management systems for inward and outward investment

To build the "Invest in China" brand, we need to ramp up efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment. We must ensure efforts are made to both attract high-quality inward investment and encourage high-level outward investment. In line with this, market access for foreign investment should be steadily eased.

We should expand the catalog of encouraged industries for foreign investment, appropriately shorten the negative list for foreign investment, remove all market access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, and promote wider opening with regard to telecommunications, the internet, education, culture, medical services, and other sectors in a well-conceived way.

We need to further reform the institutions and mechanisms for promoting foreign investment. We must ensure national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises in terms of access to factors of production, license application, standards setting, and government procurement and support these enterprises in collaborating with upstream and downstream enterprises in industrial chains.

We should refine the institutions and mechanisms for promoting and protecting Chinese investment abroad, improve the management and service systems for outward investment, and facilitate international cooperation in industrial and supply chains.

We need to foster a first-rate business environment that is market-oriented, law-based, and international. To this end, we should further enhance the roundtable system for foreign-invested enterprises to timely tackle issues faced by foreign companies and safeguard foreign investors' legal rights and interests. Relevant measures should also be refined to make it more convenient for people from outside the mainland to live, receive medical services, and make payments.

Fourth, optimizing the layout for regional opening up

The comparative advantages of different regions must be fostered and fully harnessed, and the role of opening up must be better leveraged in driving regional economic development. We must move faster toward all-around opening up through links running eastward and westward, across land, and over sea.

We need to consolidate the leading role of eastern coastal areas in our opening up endeavors and promote further opening up in the central, western, and northeastern regions. We should leverage the strengths of areas along the coasts, borders, rivers, and major transportation routes as clusters of factors for opening up and optimize the division of functions for opening up among different regions to develop a diverse array of pacesetters in this regard.

The strategy for upgrading pilot free trade zones must be implemented. We should grant zones more power to conduct reform and encourage them to engage in pioneering and integrated explorations with a view to driving the innovative development of entire industrial chains and creating new institutional innovations that can be applied elsewhere. The development of the Hainan Free Trade Port must be accelerated, and more steps need to be taken to further liberalize and facilitate trade and investment.

We should improve relevant mechanisms to see Hong Kong and Macao play a greater role in China's opening to the outside world. Harnessing the institutional strengths of the One Country, Two Systems policy, we must work to consolidate and enhance Hong Kong's status as an international financial, shipping, and trade center, support Hong Kong and Macao in building themselves into international hubs for high-caliber talent, and take steps to protect the world-class business environments of the two regions.

We should also encourage cooperation between Guangdong, Hong Kong, and Macao in the Greater Bay Area by promoting closer alignment of rules and mechanisms. Furthermore, we should improve relevant institutions and policies to promote economic and cultural exchanges and cooperation across the Taiwan Strait and advance integrated cross-Strait development.

Fifth, improving the mechanisms for high-quality cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative

We must promote in-depth economic and trade cooperation and drive deeper and more substantive progress in high-quality Belt and Road development. We need to establish more international cooperation mechanisms to ensure smooth flows in trade, investment, services trade, and e-commerce and work to conclude free trade agreements and investment protection treaties with more countries.

We should continue to implement the Belt and Road Science, Technology, and Innovation Cooperation Action Plan and redouble efforts to develop multilateral platforms for cooperation in green development, the digital economy, artificial intelligence, energy, taxation, finance, disaster mitigation, and other areas.

To promote practical cooperation, we must refine the integrated framework for land, sea, air, and cyberspace connectivity and develop a multidimensional network to connect countries along the Belt and Road. We should also make coordinated efforts to advance both major signature projects and “small but effective” public welfare projects.

We should pursue high-quality development of overseas cooperation parks, including economic and trade cooperation zones. Pilot zones for Silk Road e-commerce cooperation should also be launched. Finally, efforts must be made to deepen cooperation in areas such as green infrastructure, green energy, and green transportation.

Editor: Zhang Xian