On May 11, the press conference of the Ministry of Commerce announced the foreign trade and foreign investment data of the pilot free trade zone (abbreviation: free trade zone) in the first quarter. The import and export volume of the 21 free trade zones was 1.8 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6.6%, which was 1.8 percentage points higher than the national level; of which exports were 794.9 billion yuan, an increase of 8.5%, and imports were 1,036.3 billion yuan, an increase of 5.2%. The actual use of foreign capital was 71.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 22.1%, 17.2 percentage points higher than the national level. The main points of interest are as follows:
First, take multiple measures to stimulate trade vitality. The first is to strengthen the innovation of the customs supervision system. The Yunnan Free Trade Zone innovated the "one port and multiple channels" supervision model; the Guangdong Free Trade Zone implemented the paperless declaration of RCEP origin visas, and the express mail and perishable products were released within 6 hours; the Zhejiang Free Trade Zone The zone promotes "storage in the same tank" of bonded and non-bonded oil and gas products, and "one warehouse with multiple functions" in export supervision warehouses; Fujian Free Trade Zone continues to deepen innovative customs clearance measures such as "direct loading on arrival at Hong Kong" and "direct pick-up by ship's side". The second is to improve the convenience of international logistics. Shanghai, Anhui and other free trade zones jointly launched the "Yangtze River Delta Customs Special Cargo Inspection Operation Integration Reform", which greatly shortened the time for cross-border trade customs clearance; Yunnan, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Guangxi, Hunan, Chongqing, etc. The Pilot Free Trade Zone cooperates with the local railway bureau to promote the "one-order system" of multimodal transportation on the China-Laos railway, and promote the smooth flow of domestic and international logistics. The third is to innovate new trade methods. The first batch of businesses of the "New International Trade Service Platform" in the Beijing Free Trade Zone went smoothly; the new trade model of "offshore resale" and "goods not entering the country" in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone was officially launched to jointly help Shanghai Building an international trade center; the world's largest single duty-free shop, CDF International Duty-Free City, landed in Haikou. In the first quarter, the amount of duty-free shopping on outlying islands reached 16.9 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 6%. Consumption. In the first quarter, the total import and export volume of the 21 free trade zones accounted for 18.2% of the country's total, an increase of 0.4 percentage points from 17.8% in 2022.
Second, industrial innovation focuses on key areas. The free trade zone is not only the frontier of the intersection of domestic and international dual cycles, but also an important platform for industrial innovation and development. In the field of automobiles, the Hangzhou Free Trade Zone has established a complete industrial system for new energy vehicles from parts manufacturing to vehicle assembly, effectively promoting the high-quality development of the new energy vehicle industry; Continue to build my country's first bonded repair and re-export industrial base for used cars. In the field of medicine, both Shandong and Jiangsu Free Trade Zones have put forward new ideas for the development of medicine, promoting the healthy development of the entire industrial chain of medical care and health, accelerating the construction of blue drug warehouse R&D and production bases, and promoting the development of new marine drugs; Guangdong Free Trade Zone established South China Biological Material entry and exit platform, the establishment of exclusive green channels for biomedical goods, etc. In the field of aerospace, Hainan Free Trade Port focuses on the development of aerospace technology, to build my country's first commercial space launch site; Tianjin Free Trade Zone has formed an advantageous industrial cluster of financial leasing + international factoring + bonded maintenance and remanufacturing, and has pioneered new policies such as "hourly repairs" and "standard parts exchange" in the country.
Third, continuous breakthroughs in financial innovation. First, the issuance of offshore RMB bonds continues to expand. Following the issuance of the first local blue offshore RMB bonds in 2022, Hainan Free Trade Port successfully issued the first offshore RMB sustainable development bonds in Hainan Free Trade Port in March 2023; Qinpian District issued the first RMB-denominated non-financial corporate bonds in the Macau bond market; as of the end of February 2023, a total of 90 offshore bonds in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone have been issued, with an issuance scale of 60.7 billion yuan. The second is the launch of multiple international settlement business innovations. The country's first digital RMB factoring business and the first cross-bank refactoring business landed in Tianjin Free Trade Zone; the first international letter of credit settlement new channel business in the country's free trade zone landed in Qingdao area; The first Vietnamese Dong market purchase trade settlement business landed in Yunnan area, etc. Third, new achievements have been made in the development of green finance. Tianjin Free Trade Zone released the country's first provincial-level ESG evaluation guidelines and results; Dalian Free Trade Zone actively implemented the national "double carbon" strategy, and cooperated with Dalian Petroleum Exchange to complete the country's first liquid carbon dioxide online bidding transactions.
