China's Chongqing Shares Growth Dividends after A Year into Comprehensive Pilot Program for Sevice Sector Opening

CHONGQING,China,May 23,2022 --In mid-May,a press conference was held to introduce Chongqing's first annualreport on the Comprehensive Pilot Program for Service Sector Opening.

Chongqing is located in China's western region which is home to 400 millionpeople and one of the country's most promising areas. Statistics showed thatthe total value of Chongqing's foreign trade has grown from 53.2 billion USdollars in 2012 to over 120 billion in 2021,setting a record high,accordingto ChongqingMunicipal Commission of Commerce. In recent years,Chongqing hasbeen approved to implement pilot projects of FTZ,comprehensve innovativedevelopment of trade in services,service sector opening and internationalconsumption central city.

As one of the five provincial-level regions in China and the only one incentral and western China which has been added to the Comprehensive PilotProgram for Service Sector Opening,Chongqing has been focusing on buildinginland modern service industry development pilot zone,strengthening top-leveldesign and system integration,and making steady progress in sevice sectoropening since it has been approved as a pilot city in this regard.

After one year's innovative practice and reform exploration,Chongqing hasimplemented 69 (82%) items out of the 86 tasks in the Overall Planning forChongqing's Service Sector Opening approved by the State Council. More than 40pioneering reform explorations have been carried out,and 356 modern serviceindustry projects have been set up,driving forward the high-qualitydevelopment of service industry and Chongqing as a pacesetter of inlandopening-up.

In the past year,Chongqing has expanded and opened up its service industry inkey areas such as science and technology,trade and cultural tourism,education,finance,health care,data,rule of law,talents,investmentfacilitation,logistics and customs clearance etc.

For example,in the field of science and technology,pilot projects have beencarried out to grant researchers the ownership or long-term right of use oftheir scientific and technological achievements. In the financial sector,theQDLP pilot program was implemented and cross-border financing for science andtechnology enterprieses and exchange rate hedging services come true. In thefield of logistics customs clearance,Chongqing has pioneered customssupervision mode of bonded aviation materials with each airline as onesupervision unit. In the field of commerce,culture and tourism,innovativepilot projects have been carried out to display and trade imported commodities.

Due to a series of institutional innovations,a number of opening-up dividendshave gradually emerged. Chongqing now ranks first in the number of new R&Dinstitutions in the west of China,has become the only national logistics hubcity covering water,land and air transport in China,and has built the WesternChina Data Exchange Center. China(Chongqing)-Singapore Cancer Hospital,thecity's first Sino-foreign joint venture non-profit medical institution,is nowin operation. The New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor InternationalConsumption Center,a bonded trade exhibition center,has been established. Chongqing's first Sino-foreign cooperative vocational school and threeChinese-foreign cooperatively-run schools have been set up.

The opening of service industry has also become an important driver foroptimizing the business environment. Chongqing has optimized thecomplaint-handling mechanism for foreign-invested enterprises,innovated thecustoms tax guarantee mode,and refined the intellectual property protectionand litigation mechanism. It also established a fast track for foreign talents,expanded the application of cross-border financial blockchain service platform,and initiated convenient services such as online foreign exchange collectionand payment,service trade settlement business and smart customs declarationsystem. All these efforts make Chongqing's business environment moremarket-oriented,law-based and global-oriented.

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