VII. Building a New Open Economic System

To adapt to the new trend of economic globalization, we must promote domestic openness together with openness to the outside world, better integrate the “bring in” and “go global” strategies, stimulate the orderly and free flow of international and domestic factors of production, highly efficient allocation of resources and in-depth market integration, and foster new advantages in participating in and leading international economic cooperation and competition at a faster pace, in order to promote reform through opening up.

24. Relaxing control over investment access. We will have the same laws and regulations on Chinese and foreign investment, and keep foreign investment policies stable, transparent and predictable. We will promote the orderly opening up of finance, education, culture, healthcare and other service sectors, lift limits on access for foreign investment in childcare, care for the elderly, architectural design, accounting and auditing, trade and logistics, electronic commerce and other such service sectors, and further liberalize general manufacturing. We will integrate and optimize customs special supervision zones at a faster pace. Establishing the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone is a major step that the CPC Central Committee has taken to deepen reform and opening up in the new circumstances; we must do a solid job of building and managing it to find new approaches to and accumulate new experience in deepening reform and opening up. Based on practice in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, we will select a number of qualified areas and build them into free trade park (port) areas. We will expand both enterprise and individual investment overseas, establish themselves as foreign-investment entities, allow them to exploit their advantages in overseas investment cooperation, allow them to freely undertake engineering contracts and labor cooperation projects at their own risk in any country or region, and allow them to go global in an innovative way for greenfield investment, mergers and acquisitions, securities investment, joint investment, etc. We will expedite the signing of investment agreements with relevant countries and regions, reform the examination and approval mechanism for overseas investment, improve the consular protection system, provide more services such as rights protection, investment promotion and early warning of risks, and broaden the space for investment cooperation.

25. Speeding up the construction of free trade zones. We will keep to the world trading system and rules, persist in bilateral, multilateral, regional and sub-regional openness and cooperation, seek more converging interests with other countries and regions, and carry out the free trade zone strategy at a faster pace with neighboring countries as the basis. We will reform the management systems of market access, customs oversight, inspection and quarantine, and others, and accelerate negotiations on environmental protection, investment protection, government procurement, e-commerce and other such new fields, so as to form a global, high-standard network of free trade zones. We will open wider to and expand cooperation with the Hong Kong SAR, the Macao SAR and the Taiwan region.

26. Further opening up inland and border areas. Taking advantage of the present opportunity when world industries are restructuring, we will promote coordinated development of trade, investment and technological innovation in inland areas. We will innovate the processing trade patterns, and bring into being mechanisms and systems that are conducive to the development of inland industry clusters. We will support inland cities to start more international passenger and freight air routes and develop multi-form through transport, so as to form a “corridor” of foreign trade that traverses the eastern, central and western China, and links up southern and northern China. We will promote cooperation in customs clearance between inland areas and coastal and border areas, and strive to realize exchanges of information, mutual recognition of supervision and mutual assistance in law enforcement between port management departments. We will quicken the pace of opening up in border areas, and allow key ports, border cities and economic cooperation zones in the border areas to have special methods and policies with regard to personnel exchange, processing and logistics, tourism and some other areas. We will set up development-oriented financial institutions, accelerate the construction of infrastructure connecting China with neighboring countries and regions, and work hard to build a Silk Road Economic Belt and a Maritime Silk Road, so as to form a new pattern of all-round opening.

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