Nonstop pilot reform and innovation marks Qianhai Plan’s 1st anniversary

As a “test field” for China in comprehensively deepening reform and opening up, Qianhai has demonstrated robust development momentum since the Plan for Comprehensive Deepening Reform and Opening Up of the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone (Qianhai Plan) was issued by Chinese central government on Sept. 6 last year.

The vitality of Qianhai’s development is constantly presented to the world due to the all-round opening up. In the first half of this year, the actual use of foreign capital in the area was 3.53 billion U.S. dollars, up by 17.4% year on year, according to the Authority of Qianhai.

Qianhai has made greater progress in pilot reform and innovation over the past year. “Qianhai is characterized by the pilot reform and innovation,” said Xu Weiyu, senior manager of Shenzhen Qianhai PwC Business Consulting Services Co., Limited.

The cooperation between Shenzhen and Hong Kong has deepened as the Qianhai Authority and Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau of Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (FSTB) recently launched a 18-measure program supporting the development of Venture Capital in the area. By launching pilot policies and measures for cooperation, Qianhai has rolled out 725 institutional innovations in the fields of investment, trade, finance and rule of law, among which 65 have been duplicated for use nationwide.

The Qianhai Plan is widely taken as another opportunity for Qianhai’s development and a good window for upgrading Shenzhen-Hong Kong cooperation. Qianhai is not confined to the “geographic extension”, otherwise, it has made a “policy expansion” as well.

In July this year, Standard Chartered Bank set up Standard Chartered Private Equity Fund Management (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. in Qianhai, and the company’s legal representative Lin Ximing said that in the future, combined with Qianhai’s advantageous environment, more and more foreign institutions will enter the mainland through Qianhai.

“Both the designing and the implementation of policies have revealed an orientation toward developing and facilitating industries, thus the enterprises have been able to do business with ease and confidence,” said Owen Wang, vice president of the Greater Bay Area of Li & Fung Qianhai Supply Chain Management (Guangdong) Co., Ltd., a Hong Kong-funded enterprise.

Thanks to the dual advantages of Free Trade Zone and comprehensive bonded zone, Li & Fung supply chain currently managed and operated warehouses with an area of more than 100,000 square meters in Qianhai and has set up global or Asia-Pacific service trade and supply chain centers for a number of international well-known brands. The policies rolled out in Qianhai are “in line with industrial development”, said Wang. Thanks to those policies, the projects for logistics industry can be “efficiently connected” as soon as they’re implemented and customs clearance is “fast and smooth”, he added.

There is no doubt that Qianhai is becoming more open and international. Over the past year, Qianhai has launched lots of innovations and pilot programs: taking the lead in realizing Notification and Commitment System for approval of the business of overseas assignment of seamen, holding Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Youth Technology and Innovation Forum, carrying out the Cross-boundary Wealth Management Connect (WMC) Pilot Scheme in the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA), implementing nine support policies bringing tangible benefits to Hong Kong, building the GBA International Arbitration Centre, conducting the GBA Union of Innovation China, constructing Qianhai-Hong Kong-Macau e-link and releasing a package of 100 one-stop services for international talents etc.

Source: Authority of Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone