On October 26, a press conference on Beijing’s implementation of the State Council's adjustment of laws and regulations was held. Liu Meiying, member of Party Leadership Group of Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau and full-time Deputy Director of Beijing “Two Zones” Office, introduced that Beijing would develop the “Two Zones” from four aspects, build “Three Demonstration Zones + One Main Platform”, and implement a batch of tasks with Beijing characteristics for the “Two Zones” reform.
Specifically, Beijing will build “Three Demonstration Zones + One Main Platform”.
“Three Demonstration Zones”: Beijing will strive to build a pilot cooperation demonstration zone adopting international high-standard economic and trade rules, a demonstration zone for digital trade, and a demonstration zone for the innovation-driven development of national service trade, put in place a sound rules system for digital trade and service trade, improve the investment environment in all aspects, and strengthen Beijing’s exemplary and leading role by benchmarking against RCEP, CPTPP, China-EU investment agreement and other high-standard international economic and trade agreements.
“One Main Platform”: Beijing will develop the Beijing Stock Exchange (BSE) into a main platform serving innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Relying on the mechanism for promoting development of the “Two Zones”, the city will actively collaborate with the preparatory work of the BSE, support creative enterprises, as well as specialized and sophisticated SMEs that produce new and unique products in listing and financing, and achieve better and faster development.
At the same time, Beijing will promote the full implementation of substantive policies. Liu Meiying said that 215 of the 251 tasks set out in the “Two Zones” program have been implemented so far. Most of the remaining 36 tasks are mostly reforms involving some deep-seated issues and substantive policies that attracted most attention. For example, building a digital trade port, setting up a national trading center for China Certified Emission Reduction,, and creating integrated bonded areas with unique characteristics are all systematic projects. Many implementation courses or preliminary plans for specific tasks have basically taken shape and will be put into effect by Beijing Municipality in the next step.
To promote the high-quality development of key parks of the “Two Zones”, Beijing will select 20 key parks from all districts of the city and establish a working mechanism that matches one city leader with one key park. By policy consultation and function improvement, the positioning and industrial planning of such parks will be further optimized, and each district will, with coordinated efforts, formulate a three-year action plan for key parks. Beijing will also advance mechanism reform and institutional innovation of key parks, so as to stimulate vitality of development. The city will strengthen investment attraction for key parks and accelerate the introduction and implementation of projects. It will establish an evaluation system for key parks, foster a new pattern of high-quality development, and create a “new model” for Beijing’s reform and opening-up.
In addition, Beijing will study and implement a batch of tasks with local characteristics for the reform and opening-up of the “Two Zones”. The city will explore ways to carry out special tasks of opening up the entire industry chain and reforming all links, and promptly introduce a package of whole-chain, systematic and integrated solutions. It will implement trade and investment facilitation measures in the pilot free trade zone and consolidate results of policy measures for the imports of medicine via cross-border e-commerce, financial lease, bonded maintenance, etc. The city will also organize policy consultation on offshore trade, cultural trade, and overseas development of commercial services, so as to sort out the pain points, blocking points and difficulties for the development of industries and enterprises.
(Reporter: Dong Zhaorui)
