China should be confident [10th Anniversary of Free Trade Zone · Everyone Talks ④], Chen Bo: Continuously Expanding Openness and Facing International Competition
Editor's note: This year marks the 10th anniversary of the construction of China's pilot free trade zone. In the past 10 years, the pilot free trade zones have grown from scratch and from few to many, becoming an important platform for China's high-level opening-up and cooperation with the outside world.
Currently, China is accelerating the construction of a new development pattern with domestic circulation as the main body and domestic and international dual circulation promoting each other. It is necessary to deeply participate in the introduction of high-quality elements in the international circulation and make up for the shortcomings and weak links in the industrial chain. How to further leverage the role of free trade pilot zones in trade and investment liberalization, facilitation, and institutional innovation?
Jiefang Daily's Shangguan News reporter interviewed several well-known domestic experts to provide suggestions and suggestions for the practice of higher-level opening up to the outside world and higher quality development of the Free Trade Zone.
The interviewee for this issue is Chen Bo, a professor at Huazhong University of Science and Technology and president of Optics Valley Free Trade Research Institute. He has previously served as the Secretary General of Shanghai Free Trade Zone Research Institute and a scholar in Pujiang.
The "negative list" provides a legal basis for the free trade zone, and the following twelve words are the key to the next step of reform
Chen Bo: From the pressure of geopolitical and economic relations faced by China and the inherent demands of its own economic transformation, the development strategy of accelerating opening up to the outside world and promoting reform through opening up has become very clear. With the strategic direction formulated by the central government, what local governments need to do is to implement it, truly allowing openness to lead reform and sustainable economic development.
Over the past decade, free trade zones have played a certain role in this regard. For example, the transformation of government functions, trade facilitation, and improvement of the business environment. But we also need to see that these grades are not systematic enough. For example, in terms of investment facilitation, currently there are only 27 negative lists of China's free trade zones, which are considered extremely rare globally. The "negative list" has enabled us to have a legal basis. Whether we can practice the twelve words of "must abide by the law, strictly enforce the law, and be punished for violations" in the future is the key to the next step of reform, and it will take time to prove.
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In addition, we also need to pay attention to intellectual property law, which is widely emphasized in international economic competition, and introduce more international legal services, such as legal consultation and international arbitration.
The biggest challenge for future free trade zones is to explore international cooperation rules for the digital economy
Chen Bo: The biggest obstacle lies in the opening up of the service industry, which is closely related to the development of the entire digital economy industry. If the service sector is not open or difficult to open, it will be difficult to achieve international cooperation in the digital economy.
In addition, whoever sets the rules of the game will have an advantage in the future. From the liberalization of trade in goods to the liberalization of trade in services, we can see that whoever sets the rules for digital economic and trade cooperation first and makes them accepted by everyone can seize the opportunity of international cooperation. Currently, China and the United States are leaders in the global digital economy. China has rich formats and a large scale, while the United States is technologically advanced, Japan and the European Union have not kept up. Therefore, in order for China to seize the opportunity, it must first establish international cooperation rules in the digital economy, and free trade zones are a good experimental field. The biggest challenge and task for free trade zones in the next five to ten years may lie in exploring international cooperation rules for the digital economy.
The achievements made in the open field throughout history are not protected
The achievements made in the open field throughout history are not protected
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Chen Bo: From the perspective of Dafang Needle, supporting small and medium-sized enterprises is also one of the requirements of international economic and trade cooperation, but there are often disputes over industry protection in the specific implementation. For example, biopharmaceuticals are to the European Union, new materials are to Germany and France, and electronic products are to Japan and South Korea. If China also opens up and emphasizes the protection and support of ethnic enterprises, it may also cause controversy.
At this point, two aspects of work should be done well: first, clarify the open areas in the "negative list" and build a breakwater; The second is to carefully consider ways to support local technological innovation, such as providing preferential loans, land tax policies, or guiding social capital rather than government resources to provide support.