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When the news of the three ministries and commissions of the country recently issuing a document to allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in nine places including Shanghai came, many people familiar with the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone would sigh: listen, that is the voice of a "seed" breaking through the soil.
Turning our gaze back to the Waigaoqiao Free Trade Zone in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, the first wholly foreign-owned hospital in China, Shanghai Forever Happiness Gynecology Hospital, is located here. Since its opening, after more than 8 years of accumulation and precipitation, Eternal Happiness has served more than 300000 people and delivered 2277 babies through assisted reproductive technology treatment. It has become a specialized hospital with complete assisted reproductive technology solutions and diversified service models nationwide.
Sowing a seed of experimentation, nurturing the fruits of institutional innovation, and spreading them to more parts of the country is undoubtedly a major mission that the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone shoulders. From the establishment of the country's first negative list for foreign investment access, the launch of the country's first international trade "single window", to the creation of the first free trade account, the first trial of "certificate and license separation", to the establishment of the country's first wholly foreign-owned public fund company, the first wholly foreign-owned automobile manufacturing enterprise, the first wholly foreign-owned ship management company... Many "national firsts" and "national firsts" were born here, marking the glory and dream of China's first free trade pilot zone to boldly explore, experiment and independently reform.
A list
On September 29, 2013, Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone set sail from Waigaoqiao. As a fundamental reform and innovation, China has launched its first negative list for foreign investment access, listing 190 special management measures for foreign investment, taking an important step towards aligning with international investment rules.
The 'negative list management model' refers to the government's regulations on which economic sectors are not open, and other industries, sectors, and economic activities are allowed except for the prohibited areas on the list. A small list opened the door to market openness, and Shanghai Forever Happiness Gynecology Hospital became the first foreign-owned hospital in the country to be located on the outdoor bridge.
During the process of household registration, government functional departments continue to "relay the race": Shanghai Yongxing Gynecology Hospital applied at the end of 2014 and obtained the medical institution establishment permit in January 2015, and then obtained the hospital's practice license in the same year.
Entering the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone has allowed Shanghai Forever Happiness Gynecology Hospital to enjoy many institutional innovation dividends. Taking the application for industrial and commercial registration as an example, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone is promoting the reform of the business registration system, adopting the "single window" model for enterprise registration. Applicants submit materials to the industrial and commercial department of the free trade zone according to the "one-stop acceptance" working mechanism, and if approved, the industrial and commercial department of the free trade zone will uniformly deliver relevant documents such as the approval letter for the establishment of medical institutions, the approval certificate for foreign-invested enterprises, and the enterprise business license to the applicants within the prescribed time.
In 2016, Shanghai Forever Happiness Gynecology Hospital successfully opened. At present, medical facility resources include 50 beds in Phase I, 3 laminar flow operating rooms, a 300 square meter laminar flow dedicated laboratory, a frozen laminar flow warehouse, and 18 beds and 2185.6 square meters of clinical area in Phase II. The team building and bed scale meet the standards for setting up specialized hospitals, and the Phase III expansion project is actively being promoted.
Medical service institutions represented by Shanghai Yongxing Obstetrics and Gynecology Hospital are gradually landing in Pudong, continuously promoting medical openness: Singapore's Raffles Medical Group has established and independently operated and managed in Qiantan, the Expo area; Shanghai United Family Jinqiao Hospital provides international standard high-end medical services to high-end populations at home and abroad in the expanded area of the free trade zone, meeting the needs of Chinese and foreign patients for multi-level medical services
China's door to opening up to the outside world will only continue to widen. Nowadays, the "pre admission national treatment plus negative list management system" for foreign investment, which was piloted in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone, has been included in the Foreign Investment Law. Not long ago, the website of the National Development and Reform Commission released the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access (Negative List) (2024 Edition)". After years of streamlining, the number of restrictive measures on this list has been reduced to 29, and the restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing industry have been completely eliminated.
A test
On August 20, 2019, the Lingang New Area of Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially unveiled. The novelty of the new district lies not in expanding its area, but in using more innovative reforms and leading openness to promote comprehensive, deep level, and fundamental institutional innovation and reform, thereby leveraging the development level of Shanghai and even the whole country, and representing the country in international cooperation and competition.
A journey of testing the national system, measuring pressure, and exploring new paths began here. Over the past five years, the Lingang New Area has focused on the two missions of openness and innovation, benchmarking against the internationally recognized most competitive free trade park, fully shouldering the responsibility of being a national reform and opening up experimental field and a growth pole for the city's economic development, and accelerating the construction of the "Five Freedoms and One Convenience" institutional system.
Promote higher standards of investment freedom. The new district has optimized the management and services of foreign investment access, and has successively landed the first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing project in China, the first foreign-owned joint venture wealth management company, the first financial technology company wholly owned by a multinational financial group, and the first overseas arbitration institution business institution.
Promote higher levels of trade freedom. Innovating the customs supervision mode, Yangshan Special Comprehensive Bonded Zone pioneered the "six special" system marked by "one line clearance, two line unilateral declaration, and no separate account book set up within the zone". Innovatively implementing the integrated supervision model of "one company, two locations" for domestically produced large aircraft, the first domestic aviation engine fast repair project, the first second-hand car bonded maintenance project, and the first second-hand computer bonded maintenance project have successively landed, and the world's first fully high-temperature superconducting tokamak device bonded research and development project has been completed.
Promote more efficient financial freedom. The new district has taken the lead in carrying out high-level open foreign exchange management reform pilot projects for cross-border trade and investment, focusing on innovative cross-border investment and financing systems, efficient market-oriented resource allocation, and other aspects. It has launched 9 capital account reform measures and 4 current account facilitation measures. The Shanghai International Reinsurance Registration and Trading Center has built the first "front market, back company" reinsurance trading hall in China, and 15 reinsurance operation centers and 3 insurance brokerage companies have been approved to settle in.
Promote higher levels of transportation freedom. The new area has implemented the "China Yangshan Port" international ship registration port, built the Yangshan International Transit and Consolidation Public Service Center, and four foreign-funded shipping companies have been approved to carry out coastal escort services for 132 ships, with a total of more than 230000 standard containers carried. Promote the green transformation of shipping, and implement the first international ship bonded LNG (liquefied natural gas) and the first green methanol fuel "ship to ship" refueling business.
Promote more dynamic freedom of employment for personnel. The new district has implemented more convenient entry and exit policies and implemented the first pilot of electronic port visas in China. It has provided "one-stop" services for talents at home and abroad, opened a "single window" for foreign talents to work in China and residence permits, and issued more than 1100 foreign work permits in China. The average annual growth rate of talent introduction and settlement exceeds 97%.
Promote more convenient and efficient information connectivity. In the absence of any precedent nationwide, the new district has taken the lead in exploring a series of cross-border data flows. In January of this year, the "Classification and Grading Management Measures for Cross border Data Flow in Lingang New Area (Trial)" were released; In April, the Lingang New Area Data Cross border Service Center, which serves as a physical window for general data list operations, was launched to provide full process services for enterprise data export; In May, the new film area released the first batch of national cross-border scenario based general data lists, involving 11 scenarios, 64 data categories, and more than 600 fields in three fields: intelligent connected vehicles, public funds, and biomedicine.
Focusing on cross-border data, cross-border finance, and high-energy shipping services, the new area has launched a series of higher-level open stress tests, forming 138 breakthrough innovation cases, including 70 national pioneering cases.
A channel
The bold exploration of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone towards international standards for elevation is still moving forward. Pudong's exemption from mandatory product certification (CCC) reform is another vivid case.
As an important institutional opening-up measure for trade facilitation, CCC exemption accommodates multiple reform initiatives with pioneering and leading significance. Nowadays, the first CCC exemption management measure in China, the "Several Provisions on Exemption from Compulsory Product Certification in Pudong New Area, Shanghai", has been introduced and implemented. Pudong can include key enterprises in the scope of CCC exemption convenient channels according to the needs of leading district construction and strategic industry development, maximize policy effects, help enterprises speed up cost reduction and efficiency improvement, and provide policy "golden codes" for serving new enterprises "investment attraction" and upgrading existing enterprises.
Deng Shihua, Vice President of Roche Diagnostics (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., said, "Since 2023, Roche Diagnostics, with the support of the district market supervision bureau, has imported 236 batches of tens of thousands of medical device parts for maintenance through the CCC free trade facilitation policy, saving us 60% of the import time, significantly improving the supply efficiency of imported parts, and reducing labor and logistics costs
As of now, Pudong has issued over 80000 CCC exemption certificates, with a total value of nearly 3 billion yuan. CCC exemption accounts for about one-third of the national total, benefiting over 500 strategic industry enterprises such as integrated circuits, biomedicine, artificial intelligence, aerospace, etc., and serving more than 6000 downstream users.
From a lone star to a flock of geese flying in unison, 22 pilot free trade zones have been built across the country, forming a reform and opening up innovation pattern that covers the east, west, north, south, and central regions, and coordinates coastal, inland, and border areas. The report of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China clearly proposed the "implementation of the strategy to enhance the pilot free trade zone", elevating the construction of the pilot free trade zone to a new strategic level. The Decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Further Comprehensively Deepening Reform and Promoting Chinese path to modernization once again emphasizes that "implementing the upgrading strategy of free trade pilot zones and encouraging innovative and integrated exploration".
On August 29th, the sixth meeting of the Central Committee for Deepening Reform reviewed and approved the "Opinions on Implementing the Strategy for Upgrading Pilot Free Trade Zones", which comprehensively deployed the implementation of the strategy for upgrading pilot free trade zones.
Facing the future, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and the new Lingang Area will carry out exploration in a wider range and at a deeper level, realize the overall improvement of the level of institutional opening, the effectiveness of systematic reform, and the quality of open economy, and show the world the bright prospect of Chinese path to modernization with more innovative practices of "national first".
