Qianhai and Shekou, an integral part of China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone, which marked the fifth anniversary of its inauguration April.21, has made substantial achievements following five years of development.
Official figures showed that the added value of enterprises registered in Qianhai and Shekou has increased by 150 percent over the past five years, while the tax revenue has grown by 300 percent, and the fixed asset investment has gone up by 90 percent.
So far, Qianhai has made 520 institutional innovations, and led the other free trade zones in the country with 50 of its institutional innovations having been duplicated and promoted nationwide, 69 across Guangdong and 122 citywide in Shenzhen.
The innovations have pushed forward the fast development in the Qianhai and Shekou free trade area.
Take the Qianhaiwan Free Trade Port as an example. A reform piloted by the Qianhai authority allows the storage of non-bonded and bonded goods in the same warehouse in the port area, attracting a number of enterprises engaged in international trade as the reform provides convenience to the import and export businesses of a trading company.
ASUS, a world-renowned computer manufacturer, is among the enterprises that have relocated their global warehouses to the port area. So far, the company has paid more than 1 billion yuan（US$141.64 million） in taxes in Qianhai.
In the first quarter, the total volume of imports and exports in the port went up 77.5 percent from the same period last year.
The financial sector in Qianhai has also benefited from the innovations.
WeBank, one of China’s first private banks and the first Internet bank set up in Qianhai in 2015, has now more than 200 individual clients and 900,000 corporate clients after five years of growth.
Wan Jun, chief supervisor of WeBank, said the bank has carried out a number of innovative financial projects with the 60 million yuan in subsidies from Qianhai Cooperation Zone Authority. In return, some 24,000 small- and micro-sized enterprises have benefited from a series of supportive policies adopted by the bank amid the coronavirus pandemic.
The Shenzhen Court of International Arbitration has recently rolled out 10 measures to improve the laws that support the international business environment in Qianhai, such as hiring more Hong Kong and Macao arbitrators and promoting the mutual recognition, cooperation and convergence of the three different law systems in Shenzhen, Hong Kong and Macao.
Huang Guoyong, a senior official with the arbitration court, said that the measures provide more options for litigants.
According to PwC (PricewaterhouseCoopers), the business environment in Qianhai was ranked 23rd worldwide in 2019. Qianhai topped the country in 2018 and 2019 in the institutional innovation index compiled by Guangzhou-based Sun Yat-sen University.
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