Jiangsu's deepening of high-level opening-up will show new achievements in six aspects

On August 29, the series theme conference of "Striving to promote Jiangsu to continue to walk in the forefront of high-quality development" and "deepening reform and opening up" were held in Nanjing. The reporter learned from the conference that Jiangsu's foreign trade import and export had positive growth for 3 consecutive months, and the gap with the country narrowed for 2 consecutive months. The actual use of foreign capital remained the largest in China.

Jiang Xin, deputy director of Jiangsu Provincial Department of Commerce, said that since the beginning of this year, the external environment has become more severe and complex, and the pressure of open and high-quality development is unprecedented. Our province has conscientiously shoulded the responsibility of "walking in the front, playing the leading role and making more contributions", gone all out to stabilize the basic market of foreign trade and foreign investment, deepened high-level and system-based opening-up, and showed strong resilience of foreign trade and foreign investment under downward pressure. We have focused on the following four aspects:

First, we will focus on maintaining stability while improving quality and work together to promote innovative development of foreign trade. The implementation of the "one million exhibition and one million enterprises expand the market" action fully supports enterprises to explore the international market, and the provincial level arranges 200 million yuan of funds to support enterprises to participate in overseas exhibitions. In the first half of the year, the export of private enterprises in the province increased by 6.8% year-on-year, and the export of emerging markets increased by 3.2%. The export of "new three items" increased by 29.6 percent, ranking first in China. Market procurement trade and cross-border e-commerce exports continued to maintain rapid growth. We issued 14 guidelines on maintaining the scale and structure of foreign trade, and established two lists for maintaining steady stock and increasing growth.

Second, we will highlight stable and strong links, and work together to promote stability and quality in foreign investment. In the first half of this year, more than 80 groups of the province went abroad to hold nearly 200 investment promotion activities. The Entrepreneurs Taihu Forum signed 45 foreign investment projects worth more than $100 million, with a total investment of $11.7 billion. We will establish a list of 100 provincial-level key foreign investment projects, strengthen the guarantee of resources and factors, and promote their implementation and production. Our province has been selected into the national major foreign investment list of 9 projects, 8 manufacturing landmark projects, the largest number of the country.

Third, highlight the energy level improvement, and concentrate on promoting the construction of open platform carriers. Report to hold the fifth meeting of the leading group, and issue a three-year action plan for improving the strategy of the pilot free trade zone, a three-year implementation plan for improving the business environment, and an implementation plan for carrying out bonded maintenance business in the pilot free trade zone to support the exploration and development of the regional characteristics. We will promote the transformation and development of development zones. Suzhou Industrial Park has won the "seventh consecutive title" in the 2022 national evaluation, six development zones have entered the top 30, and 16 measures have been put forward to support the innovation and upgrading of national economic development zones, so as to better play the role of demonstration and leading.

Fourth, highlight docking and integration, and focus on exploring institutional opening-up. Positive progress has been made in the implementation of the 38 measures to explore institution-oriented opening-up. Preliminary statistics show that more than two-thirds of the measures have been implemented, and the rest are making solid progress. Do a good job in publicity and training of the implementation of the agreement, and the export value of RCEP visa of enterprises in our province remains the first in the country. We will improve investment and trade facilitation. Deepening the reform of "release, management and service", the fourth batch of 12 reform pilot experiences in the new pilot free trade zone were replicated and promoted throughout the province, and the overall customs clearance time of the province's ports reached the best level in history.

Jiangsu is a big province of foreign trade and foreign investment. Jiang Xin said that in the next step, the province will focus on building a two-way opening hub with world cohesion, enlarge the advantages of opening up to the east, do a good job in opening up to the west, make greater efforts to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, continue to create a first-class business environment, and shape new advantages of an open economy. The focus is on demonstrating new achievements in six areas:

First, we will stabilize the basic trend of foreign trade and foreign investment, and make new progress in helping the economy continue to pick up and improve. Conscientiously implement the "24" of The State Council to optimize the environment for foreign investment and the "19" of our province to promote the continuous recovery and improvement of the economy, accelerate the introduction of the three-year action plan for the high-quality development of cross-border e-commerce, do a good job in encouraging the reinvestment of foreign profits and other policy research reserves, strengthen coordination with the existing policies, and better play the superposition effect.

Second, promote the innovative development of foreign trade and show new achievements in accelerating the construction of strong trade provinces. Our province will better coordinate the stable scale and optimal structure of foreign trade, accelerate the pace of digital transformation, and promote the high-quality development of trade. We will strengthen the building of export bases and export brands, and promote the transformation and upgrading of processing trade. We will give full play to the role of four import trade promotion innovation demonstration zones, promote the construction of import bases, and make greater efforts to promote imports. We will accelerate the construction of 13 comprehensive pilot zones for cross-border e-commerce, and promote the cultivation and identification of cross-border e-commerce industrial parks, public overseas warehouses, and well-known brands. We will deepen trials for innovative development of service trade in Nanjing and Suzhou, and strive to create demonstration zones for innovative development of service trade.

Third, deepen industrial chain and supply chain openness and cooperation, and show new achievements in strengthening and expanding industrial chains. Our province will stick to the real economy as a domestic skill, innovate new ways and measures to attract foreign investment and expand opening up, support powerful enterprises to participate in the reconstruction of the industrial chain and supply chain, and help build a modern industrial system. We will guide foreign investment in deepening development. We will implement policies on foreign-funded R&D centers, encourage foreign-funded enterprises to set up R&D centers, integrate them into the domestic innovation network system, and continue to identify and cultivate regional headquarters and functional institutions of multinational corporations. We will advance legislation on the Regulations on Foreign Investment in Jiangsu Province and strengthen protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors. We will support enterprises with strength and needs to carry out cross-border industrial chain cooperation in a steady manner.

Fourth, accelerate the improvement of the high-end platform system for opening up to the outside world, and show new achievements in consolidating the support of double-cycle carriers. Our province will implement the promotion strategy of pilot free trade zones at a high level, implement the three-year action plan, continue to deepen the exploration of original and differentiated reform, and promote the open and innovative development of key industries such as biomedicine. We will focus on the "one priority, three priorities" and focus on economic development, continue to enhance industrial competitiveness, and give full play to the role of the "stabilizer" and "anchor" of the open economy. We will strengthen policy research and coordination, and support the Suzhou Industrial Park in deepening the comprehensive experiment of opening up and innovation. We will continue to explore reforms such as regional assessment and de-administration, and unleash the dividends of institutional innovation.

Fifth, we carried out preliminary trials and stress tests, and made new progress in steadily expanding institutional opening-up. Resolutely shouldering the responsibility and mission of "exploring the road for national development", combining the needs of the country and the strengths of Jiangsu, and promoting greater breakthroughs in institution-oriented opening up. We will continue to raise the standards of international economic and trade rules, give full play to the role of pilot free trade zones as "pressure testing laboratories", and accelerate the opening up and development of modern service industries, especially producer services. We will implement the RCEP Agreement with high quality and actively expand cooperation with member states in special services.

Sixth, we will deepen economic and trade cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative and make new progress in implementing major national strategies. We will implement the Silk Road trade promotion plan in a high-quality manner. This year, we will organize enterprises to participate in more than 20 key exhibitions along the routes, and continue to arrange a number of public overseas warehouses along the routes. We will increase RCEP publicity and training efforts to help enterprises improve their ability to apply the rules and expand regional markets. We will do a good job in attracting investment from Japan and the ROK in key industrial chains, support enterprises in strengthening industrial chain and supply chain cooperation, and work to smooth the industrial cycle and cooperation in East Asia. We will support the high-quality development of overseas industrial parks along the routes, such as Cambodia's Xugang Special Zone and the China-Arab Emirates Production Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park, and build an important overseas pivot that serves and builds a new development pattern.