Xinhua News Agency, Chongqing, January 6th (Xu Shanshan, Wang Yanbo) At the China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone Upgrade Strategy Seminar held in Chongqing on the 6th, participating experts conspired on how the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone will benchmark the international high-standard economy and trade. Rules, maximize the role of the reform test field, and help build a trading power. At the same time, it will focus on Chongqing's advantageous and characteristic industries, and provide advice and suggestions for the high-quality construction of the Pilot Free Trade Zone to boost local economic development.
The construction of pilot free trade zones is a milestone in the process of my country's reform and opening up, and it is an important strategic measure to promote comprehensively deepening reform and expanding opening up in the new era. Chongqing is an important hub for the interconnection of the "Belt and Road" and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, and an important strategic fulcrum for the development of the western region. The establishment of the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone is a major decision made by the Party Central Committee and the State Council.
Fu Yan, special commissioner of the Ministry of Commerce in Chengdu, said that over the past five years, the construction of the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone has achieved outstanding results, and has formed a number of high-quality systems with national influence in the fields of investment, trade, finance, logistics, and the rule of law. At the same time, the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone is guided by the improvement of the advantageous industrial chain, accelerating the accumulation of foreign investment and foreign trade projects in the Pilot Free Trade Zone, and has made important contributions to the healthy and rapid development of Chongqing's open economy.
At present, my country's reform and opening up is facing a complex external environment. How to win the initiative to build a high-level open free trade pilot zone has become a hot topic among experts at the seminar hosted by the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce.
Huo Jianguo, vice president of the China World Trade Organization Research Association, said that the pilot free trade zone should accelerate the exploration of institutional opening, actively benchmark the CPTPP high-standard rule system, comprehensively create an international business environment, and actively improve rules, regulations, and management systems. Benchmark international practices in terms of standards and systems; at the same time, explore new models and new formats of trade development to further enhance the vitality of economic development.
Bai Ming, deputy director of the International Market Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that as the "experimental field" of reform and opening up, the pilot free trade zone focuses on the word "experiment", and institutional innovation means bold, bold and independent work. Situations in different free trade pilot zones vary greatly. We must emphasize adapting measures to local conditions and not “one size fits all” in institutional innovation; we must emphasize integrated innovation, but we don’t need to deliberately pursue complexity. Instead, we need to emphasize simplicity and ease of operation.
Bai Ming said that whether it is trade in goods or trade in services, RCEP will help accelerate the process of trade liberalization and facilitation, and will accelerate the institutional two-way opening of the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone. Huo Jianguo also suggested that the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone should take the initiative to benchmark the RCEP free trade zone market to lay a foundation for stabilizing the basic market of foreign trade; at the same time, implement relevant policies for the opening of the service industry to drive economic growth through the opening of the service industry.
Regarding the future development of the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone, Xu Hongqiang, director of the Research Office of the Foreign Economic and Economic Affairs Department of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that we should persist in building a new highland for opening up in the west, promote institutional opening up to international high standards, create a high-level business environment, and reform and improve innovation mechanisms. , to develop the basic advantages of electronic information, automobiles and other industries, to give full play to the location advantages of the New Land-Sea Corridor in the West, the China-Europe Railway Express, and the golden waterway of the Yangtze River, to connect Southeast Asia, Russia, Central Asia, and Europe, as well as to build a digital silk road and develop digital trade. proceed.
Cao Wenzhong, vice president of China Economic Information Service, said how to further improve the level of opening up and innovation in the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone, plan and promote high-quality development with greater efforts, and make it a new highland for reform and opening up and an important growth point for high-quality development in the western region It is the research focus of the China Economic Information Service to fulfill its own duties and serve the national strategy.
At the seminar, Tao Ye, deputy director of Chongqing Center of China Economic Information Service, released the "Blue Book of China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone (2017-2022)". After exploration and practice, the Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone has achieved fruitful results in system innovation and open economic development, the industrial agglomeration effect has become increasingly prominent, and the business environment has been continuously optimized. In the stage of "comprehensive advancement and accumulation of momentum", reform dividends have been fully released, innovation vitality has continued to burst, and opening momentum has become stronger, laying a solid foundation for high-quality development.
At the meeting, Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce and China Economic Information Service signed a strategic cooperation agreement. The two parties will give full play to and integrate their respective advantages, carry out strong cooperation in multiple fields, realize resource sharing, complement each other's advantages, and jointly promote the extension and development of the business of both parties.
