General Office of the People's Government of Sichuan Province
Circular on Printing and Issuing the Implementation Plan for Building Pilot Areas of Collaborative reform in the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone
CBH [2018] No. 75
The Municipal (Prefectural) People's Governments, the departments and directly affiliated institutions of the Provincial Government, and relevant units:
The Implementation Plan for Building the Pilot Areas of Collaborative reform in the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone has been approved by the provincial government and is hereby printed and distributed to you. Please implement this plan in light of actual contexts.
General Office of the People's Government of Sichuan Province
August 23, 2018
The Implementation Plan for Building Pilot Areas of Collaborative reform in the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone
This implementation plan is formulated to secure the development strategy of “one main area with multiple auxiliaries” and the strategy for comprehensive opening-up and cooperation stipulated at the Third Plenary Session of the 11th Provincial Party Committee, to fully tap the demonstration and driving effect of the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the PFTZ), to support qualified regions to jointly promote reform and innovation, and to enhance the overall competitiveness of Sichuan and its sway of opening-up.
I. Overall requirements
(i) Guiding concepts. Guided by Xi Jinping Thought for a new era of socialism with Chinese characteristics, we will implement the important instructions of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China and of General Secretary Xi Jinping on the work of Sichuan. We will forge a new pattern of development featuring “one main area with multiple auxiliaries, coordinated development among the five areas”, foster a strategic deployment of the three-dimensional opening-up of “four-direction expansion and across-the-board opening-up”, and adhere to the principle of “combined superiority, classified promotion, demonstrative drivers, and all-round free-trade”, so as to deepen the innovation of “3 Areas + N Parks” model. We will highlight the complementarity between systems, integration of platforms, and interaction among industries to establish a sound cross-regional mechanism for coordinated promotion and a guarantee system for the pilot areas of the PFTZ, injecting strong momentum into the high-quality development of our province and into the coordinated opening-up between the inland and areas along the coast, borders and rivers.
(ii) Main objectives. Through collaborative reform, innovation, and opening-up, we will foster a number of reform and innovation leaders, build vantage points for opening-up, and forge growth poles for regional development. In 2018, we will build three pilot areas for the coordinated reform in the PFTZ, and strive to cultivate 15 such pilot areas by 2020, so as to enable the whole province to share the dividend of reform in the PFTZ, to develop a higher level open economy, to enhance the overall competitiveness of the region and its sway of opening-up.
II. Conditions for application
Entities are encouraged to apply for building pilot areas for coordinated reform in the (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone upon fulfilling the following conditions:
(i) State-level development zones with flexible institutional mechanisms and boasting advantages in platforms, functions, industries and channels.
(ii) Economic functional zones which conform to the pattern of regional coordinated development of the province and the strategic deployment for cultivating a three-dimensional comprehensive opening-up pattern, and equipped with strong capabilities of reform and innovation, obvious advantages in open development, and prominent driving effect for other regions.
(iii) County-level administrative areas with regional advantages, distinctive industrial characteristics, and huge potentials for opening-up.
III. Key tasks
(i) Collaborate to promote innovation of core systems. We will focus on building “five core systems of institutional innovation” such as modern governance, two-way investment management, trade facilitation, opening-up and innovation of finance, innovation and entrepreneurship, strengthen collaborative testing and system integration, as well as strive to make major achievements in cross-regional, cross-sectoral, and cross-level reform and innovation. The “grand action for benchmarking standards and solving problems in the business environment” will be implemented to build a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment. We will intensify the reform of the commercial systems, and deepen reforms such as “separation of business permit and license” and “reduction of permit after gaining a license” to further facilitate procedures for starting and cancellation of businesses. We will continue to build the service system and capacity of commercial laws. To provide better, faster and more convenient services for people to handle affairs and start businesses, we will jointly promote the reform of relatively centralized administrative licensing, comprehensive law enforcement systems for administrations and the examination and approval of the investment projects of enterprises, thus building the demonstration areas for convenient approval as soon as possible. We will further promote the construction of the "single window" for international trade of China (Sichuan). We will implement the pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management system for foreign investments, and explore to tap the spillover effect of the negative list in the PFTZ and expand the opening-up of industries by launching the Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Establishment (Negative List) across the board.
(i) Take the lead to emulate and promote reform experiences. We will launch the special action of "introducing the dividends of free trade into the parks", support the pilot zones of coordinated reform to fully enjoy the results of institutional reform in the PFTZ. We will promote state-level experiences and best practical cases of relevant pilot areas for reforms, and take the lead in promoting the independent innovation achievements of the Sichuan PFTZ. We will replicate and promote the reform experiences of the PFTZ and adopt them in the key works of the region, improve mechanism for such replication and promotion, and conduct special supervision in due course. We will expand the institutional innovations such as “multimodal transportation and one bill-of-lading”, “separation of business permit and license” and “the commitment system for the investment project of enterprises”. We will report to the country our achievements of coordinated reforms that are “well trialed, precise targeted, and risk controllable”.
(iii) Entrust greater autonomy in reform. In line with the characteristic reform tasks of the pilot zones for coordinated reform, abiding by the principle of “decentralizing according to law, delegating powers on demand, and do so whenever possible” and “capable of delegation and taking on the decentralized powers”, we will tackle problems from two dimensions, namely to deliver quick results with small movements in the short-term, and to eradicate hierarchical and structural issues in the long-term, as well as undertake provincial and municipal management authorities in accordance with the PFTZ simultaneously. We will jointly launch basic researches on the policies and risk prevention & control of the free trade port, strive to test new policies and new rules in investment, trade, and finance, and explore to construct a free trade port with an inland perspective and Chinese characteristics based on the integration of the advantages of multi-port linkage and multimodal transportation featuring “airport + railway port + water port”.
(iv) Jointly build an open platform linking the outside world. We will support the pilot areas of collaborative reform to tap their existing railways, ports, and airport hubs to upgrade software and hardware facilities, strengthen resource integration, policy guarantee, and service support, and coordinate to establish open platforms with better layout and integrated functions, and accelerate the formation of "one network", carrier of open platform in diverse categories, complete functions and strong supports. We will take into consideration the advantages of location and industry to support the establishment of national open ports, upgradation of port capacity, and cultivation of a port economy. We will take into account the overall local import and export volume, the development level of open industry, the construction of open project and other factors, so as to establish new comprehensive bonded area, bonded logistics center (B type) and other special customs supervision areas (sites). We support in building a new batch of designated ports for imported goods such as meat and grain. We will strengthen cooperation of law enforcement among the management departments at ports, implement data exchange, mutual recognition of law enforcement and coordinated supervision, in an effort to improve customs integration and open cooperation.
(v) Construct a new pattern featuring three-dimensional and comprehensive opening-up. Adhering to the "four-direction expansion and across-the-board opening-up", we will integrate into the "Belt and Road" construction and the national strategies such as the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, as well as focus on building strategic hubs and pivots for opening-up. We will support the construction of an important gateway connecting the south, utilize the South Sichuan Economic Zone, the Panxi Economic Zone, and the Northeast Sichuan Economic Zone to match with the Guangdong, Hong Kong, Macao Greater Bay Area, the Beibu Gulf Economic Zone and the Pearl River Delta to consolidate and enhance the southward mechanism for opening-up and cooperation, and the mechanism for the Sichuan-Hong Kong cooperative conference, to participate in the framework for China-ASEAN cooperation and in the construction of China-Indochina Peninsula, Bangladesh-China-India-Myanmar, China-Pakistan and other international economic corridors, and to promote cooperation in international production capacity, trade and economy, culture and tourism. We will build high-end industries opening to the east, take the initiative to match with the Yangtze River Economic Belt and the Yangtze River Delta, and undertake transfers of advanced productivity in the US, Japan, Korea and the Yangtze River Economic Belt as soon as possible. We will build a national-level westward platform for cooperation with Europe, support Chengdu in building itself into an international gateway of the west, and promote cooperation with high-end service industries and advanced manufacturing industries in Europe. We will build the northward bridgehead for opening-up and take the initiative to construct the Sino-Russian economic corridor.
(vi) Develop a higher level open economy. We will improve the quality and efficiency of two-way investment, implement integrated, collaborative and supportive investment, strengthen the graded layout of foreign investment industry, and create of "two parks for two countries" and "multi-parks for multi-nations". We will jointly build a “one-stop” integrated service platform to build a system for promoting unified and efficient foreign investment service. Focusing on constructing a strong province founded by trade, we will import and export high-quality goods, and foster export-oriented industrial parks with distinctive features and gathering effects. We will innovate and develop cross-border e-commerce, technology trade, cultural creativity, intellectual property and other service trades, develop pilot demonstration enterprises of supply chains, and build bases for foreign cultural trade and national cultural export. We will launch a global campaign of “Attractive PFTZ and Open Sichuan”, and promote enterprises, industries, cities and talents at the international market. We will provide more support for high-end talents, facilitate entry and exit procedures for high-level foreign talents, open up green channels for the talent flow, and build a highland for gathering international talents.
(vii) Construct characteristic and modern industrial systems. Tapping the resource endowment, location advantage and development potential of the pilot areas of collaborative reform, we will center on the province's pillar industries, emerging industries, future industries and digital economy worth trillions of RMB to carry out in-depth cooperation between industry and talent, matched collaboration of enterprises, and co-construction of project carriers, in an effort to promote complementary of industries, coordinated linkages, and misplaced development. We will formulate measures for cost and benefit sharing, talent exchange and cooperation, establish a coordinated development mechanism for industries such as “headquarters + bases”, “leading + supportive”, and explore the regional model for benefit sharing featuring “fixed stock and distributed increment” and the allocation method for economic output of cross-regional cooperation projects. We will jointly promote the linkage of talents, science, technology, education, medical care and other resources among regions.
(viii) Enhance connectivity among regions. We will further integrate the advantages of “locating near the air, railway and river”, focus on promoting the construction of an international logistics system with “international railway + international aviation” as the core and the multi-modal transportation of air, land, railway and water, and accelerate the construction of an economic corridor with “four directions and eight corridors” based on land and water, linking the east and west and running from the north to the south. We will deepen the strategy of "Chengdu Europe Plus", build a three-way cooperation mechanism among "government, enterprises and ports", enhance the driving effect of the China Railway Express (Chengdu) concerning the economy of other cities (prefectures), speed up the planning and construction of the passenger and freight railway in Sichuan, and create a group of logistics bases for the "Chengdu Europe Plus", expand the collection and transportation of international trains, and bring about closes integration with domestic and international trains. We will match with the integrated construction and operation of “two airports in one city” of Chengdu, promote the expansion of airport and supportive transportation facilities of airway, railway and highway, construct networks and allocation mechanism of flight time with effective connection and mutual support. We will construct a shipping center in the upper reaches of Yangtze River (Sichuan), enhance the shipping capacity of inland rivers, and cultivate shipping services such as shipping finance, shipping logistics transactions, and ship maintenance as soon as possible. We will develop multimodal transportation, speed up the improvement of basic systems, build a platform for cooperative development among multi-modal transportation, railway for supply chain, and "highway" of local governments. We will use the industrial concentration zones of the province to create an integrated and intelligent logistics system for multimodal transportation and jointly explore new rules for land trade.
IV. Supporting measures
(i) Strengthen leadership in organizations. We will incorporate the construction of the pilot area for collaborative reform into the agenda of the leading group for promoting the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and coordinate to resolve major issues. The Sichuan Free Trade Office will take the lead in organizing and coordinating together with the provincial departments (units) to formulate the construction plans for each pilot area, and report them to the plenary session of the leading group for deliberation. The municipal (prefectural) government of each pilot area is to establish a working mechanism and formulate the construction plan, and is responsible for implementing such plan once received approval.
(ii) Strengthen policy support. Relevant provincial departments (units) are to study and introduce policy measures to support the reform and innovation in the PFTZ and the pilot area for collaborative reform in light of such supportive measures of the state. The local government of the pilot area will speed up the reforms of administrative examination & approval and market supervision to make them compatible with development, and protect factors such as industry, finance, taxation, land and talent. We will strengthen the rule of law and make the construction of the pilot area as an important part of the regulations of the China (Sichuan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and establish a fault-tolerant and error-rectification mechanism that encourages innovation and tolerant failures.
(iii) Conduct assessment and evaluation. An evaluation system for high-quality development in the pilot areas for collaborative reform and a dynamic management mechanism for “positive incentives and reverse constraints” will be established to improve the works of information reporting, inspection and supervision. All relevant localities and departments will establish a work account for collaborative reform and explore to establish a system of “list + accountability + project”. Third-party evaluations will be carried out and the Report on the Construction of Pilot Areas in Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone (Blue Book) will be prepared and published regularly.
(iv) Highlight training and publicity. Activities like the "Special Training on Constructing the Pilot Free Trade Zone and Promoting the Formation of a New Pattern of All-round Opening-up", "Seminar for Exchanges on Highland of Open Economy in Inland" and "Lectures on Free Trade" will continue to be held. The construction of new research think tanks will be strengthened, and researches on strategic topics such as inland free trade ports, and collaborative opening-up for inland and areas along the coasts, borders and rivers will be carried out. The all-media center of the PFTZ will be constructed to strengthen the "online + offline" three-dimensional publicity, and to display the outstanding dynamics and achievements of the PFTZ and the pilot area for collaborative reform in real time.
