On 23 July 2015, the official announcement of the “construction and implementation plan for Shenzhen Shekou area within the Guangdong free trade pilot zone” was held in the Shenzhen Qianhai & Shekou area in the Guangdong pilot free trade zone, China. The municipal standing committee, municipal government’s party members, as well as Mr Tian Fu, the director of the administrative committee of Qianhai, attended the announcement event.
At the event, the Shenzhen Customs Department, Shenzhen branch of the People’s Bank, Shenzhen Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Shenzhen Maritime Bureau, Shenzhen Banking Regulatory Bureau and Shenzhen National Tax Bureau also announced the launch of various administrative programmes to support the development of the Qianhai & Shekou area.
The “Implementation Plan” Highlights 10 tasks and 71 Measures
In order to allow the Qianhai & Shekou free trade area to achieve its target positioning, the “implementation plan” introduces 71 measures centering around 10 objectives, namely, “to build a model zone governed by law reflective of the characteristic Chinese socialist ideology, to establish a set of stringent rules for investment and trade, to promote liberalization of service trade between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, to strengthen functional integration in international trade, to construct the port of origin for a chain of ports along the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, to build a pilot showcase of how China’s financial industry is opening up to the rest of the world, enhancing radiation-driven features in the region, to innovate the supervision and regulation model, and to implement a package of supporting policies and improve security mechanisms”. The 71 measures are further broken down into 98 concrete items to be implemented by 61 units under the coordination of the Qianhai & Shekou free trade area administrative committee.
our Unique Points of the “implementation Plan”:
(1)Staying aligned with the nation’s strategic objectives, including the “One Belt, One Road” initiative, the construction of a free trade zone and the deepening of the collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong through the implementation of detailed programmes and features to execute these national strategies in a more intensive, detailed and concrete manner.
(2)Drafting a variety of suggestions surrounding the objectives of broadening the areas for liberalization and deepening reforms, with system reform at the core of all ideas. Suggestions include revamping the investment and trade system with a set of stringent rules and establishing a market-oriented management model to govern economic activities.
(3) Drafting a variety of measures to promote further collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, especially in areas of deepening partnership in contemporary services, expanding the liberalization of the service industry to Hong Kong, exploring the possibility of lowering the barriers for Hong Kong financial institutions to set up operations in mainland China, and for both parties to explore the possibility of working together to establish an Asia-Pacific Science and Technology Innovation Centre etc.
(4)Suggesting new ideas with innovative concepts to build a unique open economy with novel management models to study the likelihood of a new set of rules for international trade, reform of the foreign investment management system and the documentation of outbound investment, etc.
The liberalization of the financial industry is of utmost priority amongst all the initiatives under the “implementation plan”, with a total of 22 detailed measures crafted around it, including hastening the pace of piloting measures to open up financial innovation, studying the establishment of an offshore securities trading centre, (Qianhai international board or “Silk road board”), promoting the establishment of a two-way RMB financing channel, actively promoting the liberalization of banking services to both internal and overseas markets, deepening macro-prudential debt management reform, and promoting the co-development of the insurance market in Shenzhen and Hong Kong etc.
In terms of collaboration between Shenzhen and Hong Kong, Qianhai will move towards a direction that creates a win-win scenario for both Shenzhen and Hong Kong, which will generates positive spillover effects for Qianhai. The free trade zone, “One Belt, One Road” initiative, as well as partnership between Shenzhen and Hong Kong will complement one another to achieve a sound reform and liberalization framework, create a replicable model in the shortest time possible, and develop high-quality industrial clusters to achieve the original goals that were set.
Qianhai & Shekou Area GDP Looks Set to Exceed a 100 Billion Yuan by Year-end
According to Tian Fu, the announcement of the “implementation plan” is a signpost to indicate the commencement of all aspects of work in the free trade area. With that, development in Qianhai & Shekou area will also enter a new phase. In order to attain clarity in the major works that need to be completed in the Qianhai & Shekou area by end 2015, the Qianhai Shekou administrative committee has come up with a “2015 Key Work Focus for Qianhai & Shekou free trade area” report. In the near future, the report will be submitted for review and approval, which once is approved work can be started. It is hoped that each work item can be expedited to meet the original 2015 targets set for the Qianhai & Shekou free trade area.
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