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

In mid-May, a press conference was held to introduce Chongqing’s first annual report on the Comprehensive Pilot Program for Service Sector Opening.

Chongqing is located in China’s western region which is home to 400 million people and one of the country’s most promising areas. Statistics showed that the total value of Chongqing’s foreign trade has grown from 53.2 billion US dollars in 2012 to over 120 billion in 2021, setting a record high, according to Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce. In recent years, Chongqing has been approved to implement pilot projects of FTZ, comprehensve innovative development of trade in services, service sector opening and international consumption central city.

As one of the five provincial-level regions in China and the only one in central and western China which has been added to the Comprehensive Pilot Program for Service Sector Opening, Chongqing has been focusing on building inland modern service industry development pilot zone, strengthening top-level design and system integration, and making steady progress in sevice sector opening since it has been approved as a pilot city in this regard.

After one year’s innovative practice and reform exploration, Chongqing has implemented 69 (82%) items out of the 86 tasks in the Overall Planning for Chongqing’s Service Sector Opening approved by the State Council. More than 40 pioneering reform explorations have been carried out, and 356 modern service industry projects have been set up, driving forward the high-quality development of service industry and Chongqing as a pacesetter of inland opening-up.

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

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

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

The opening of service industry has also become an important driver for optimizing the business environment. Chongqing has optimized the complaint-handling mechanism for foreign-invested enterprises, innovated the customs tax guarantee mode, and refined the intellectual property protection and 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 collection and payment, service trade settlement business and smart customs declaration system. All these efforts make Chongqing’s business environment more market-oriented, law-based and global-oriented.

Source: Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce