Since the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone was officially established in September 2013, the construction of my country's Pilot Free Trade Zone has ushered in the tenth year. In the past ten years, my country's pilot free trade zone has expanded from "1" to "21", forming 278 institutional innovations and replicating and promoting them, and the negative list items for foreign investment access have been reduced from 190 to 27.
Xiao Benhua, deputy dean of the Free Trade Zone Research Institute of Shanghai Lixin University of Accounting and Finance, said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily that as a test field for reform and opening up, the construction of the Free Trade Pilot Zone has provided my country with high-level opening up and high-quality development through institutional innovation. A large number of experiences that can be replicated and promoted; at the same time, as a "growth pole" for regional economic development, it has played a vital role in stabilizing foreign investment and foreign trade and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading in various regions.
278 institutional innovations have been replicated and promoted
The leapfrog development of the Pilot Free Trade Zone cannot be separated from the support of institutional innovation. According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in the past ten years, my country's pilot free trade zones have accumulatively produced 278 institutional innovations, covering investment facilitation, trade facilitation, financial openness and innovation, interim and ex-post supervision and other types of fields. From the perspective of the path and method of replication and promotion, there are not only centralized replication and promotion, but also departmental independent replication and promotion, which has effectively played the role of comprehensively deepening reform and expanding the opening of the experimental field.
"The establishment of 21 pilot free trade zones and the Hainan Free Trade Port across the country has promoted the development of the industrial chain and supply chain and the innovation of the financial system, and pushed my country's business environment, the convenience of trade and investment, and the degree of internationalization of financial services to a level. A new height.” Song Xiangqing, deputy dean of Beijing Normal University’s Institute of Government Management and director of the Industrial Economics Research Center, said in an interview with a reporter from the Securities Daily that the large-scale wide-area pilot free trade zone has set a new record among the three. , that is, the country has the highest degree of openness, the most domestic system innovation, and the best domestic business environment.
Take the exploration results in Hainan as an example. In 2018, the construction of the Hainan Free Trade Port was launched. Up to now, a total of 134 institutional innovation cases have been released, 8 of which have been replicated and promoted by the State Council to the whole country, and 6 have been praised by the State Council’s supervisor. Driven by effective exploration, the province's economic aggregate and development quality have made considerable progress.