The national free trade zones are serving a new development pattern through linkage and collaboration, with geese flying in unison
Compared to solitary geese flying alone, the distance that a goose formation can traverse in unison is much longer. Scientific research has shown that this is because geese flying in formation can effectively utilize the formation to form favorable aerodynamic changes.
The "goose formation model" was first used by economists to explain the hierarchical transfer of industries, and later found to be equally applicable in the innovation and replication promotion of major systemic systems. This is also why people often use "goose formation" to describe the 21 pilot free trade zones and Hainan Free Trade Port pattern formed in China over the past 10 years.
At the cooperation sub forum of the 10th anniversary theme forum of China's pilot free trade zone construction held on September 20th, the word "goose formation" was also frequently mentioned. The relevant leaders of free trade zones from various regions who attended the meeting exchanged ideas on the significance and effectiveness of cooperation, and reached a consensus - to deepen cooperation and exchange, accelerate the promotion of linked development, promote resource co construction and sharing, and form a joint development force, in order to take off further and better serve the new development pattern.
Linkage development has improved the efficiency of free trade dividends
Yang Zhengwei, Director of the Coordination Department for Port Construction in the Free Trade Zone of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that China has established 21 separate batches of free trade, and currently has formed an open trend of coordinated development in the east, west, north, south, and central regions, coordinating coastal, inland, and border areas. Based on their respective location and regional economic advantages, actively explore coordinated development between their respective trade pilot zones.
In May 2021, relevant leaders of the three provinces and one city in the Yangtze River Delta signed the Memorandum of Understanding on the Integrated Development of the Yangtze River Delta Pilot Free Trade Zone, marking the official establishment of the Yangtze River Delta Pilot Free Trade Zone Alliance. People hope that this innovative measure to deepen the reform of free trade pilot zones can drive their respective trade pilot zones to share their advantages and resources, and jointly plan the focus of leading regional coordinated development. Over two years have passed, and the beautiful picture of high-quality development of the Yangtze River Delta integration is constantly being written.
Various customs clearance facilitation measures have been innovatively launched and implemented in the Yangtze River Delta region, effectively solving the "bottleneck" problem in enterprise supply and production chains. A series of reforms, such as deepening the cooperation of the "single window" in international trade in the Yangtze River Delta, are being implemented to continuously cultivate new competitive advantages in foreign trade. The joint construction of the Yangtze River Delta integrated oil and gas trading market in the Shanghai Zhejiang Pilot Free Trade Zone is considered an important measure to integrate oil and gas resources in the Yangtze River Delta and explore new models of the oil and gas market. It is expected to play a positive role in forming domestic oil and gas pricing benchmarks through the linkage of futures and futures. This cooperation has also been included in the newly released "Typical Cases of Innovative Development in China's Pilot Free Trade Zones".
Cooperation has also brought significant changes to the Beijing Tianjin Hebei region. In September 2020, the three pilot free trade zones quickly established a joint meeting mechanism and signed the Tripartite Strategic Cooperation Framework Agreement for the Beijing Tianjin Hebei Pilot Free Trade Zone. Since 2021, Beijing, together with the government service departments of Tianjin and Hebei provinces, has jointly launched 179 "colleagues and standards" projects in the three pilot free trade zones, including administrative licensing, administrative collection, other administrative powers, public services, and other four types of projects, to promote major reforms through small incisions.
Liu Meiying, the full-time deputy director of the "Two Zones" Office in Beijing, stated that with the construction of the "Two Zones" of the National Service Industry Expansion and Opening Comprehensive Demonstration Zone and the China Free Trade Pilot Zone as carriers, Beijing will continue to work together with the Tianjin Hebei region, comprehensively layout from the linkage mechanism, task system, innovation path and other aspects, and create a platform highland for collaborative opening.
The Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, which has been listed for six years, is also continuously enhancing its synergy in the process of opening up. In order to facilitate cross regional production and operation of enterprises and help them improve their competitiveness, the South Sichuan Lingang Area has strengthened cooperation with other bonded areas, while also signing "inter provincial communication and cooperation" agreements with more than 20 regions such as Luoyang in Henan, Kaifeng, Yichang in Hubei, and Yingkou in Liaoning. It has established a cross regional communication and cooperation mechanism, effectively eliminating administrative costs for cross provincial affairs and compressing the time for enterprises to handle affairs in different regions.
Wu Ge, the full-time deputy director of the Sichuan Free Trade Office, proposed that for the Sichuan Pilot Free Trade Zone, the goal is to explore the formation of a multi link collaborative system of intra provincial collaboration, inter provincial collaboration, and overseas collaboration, nurturing innovation and stimulating more potential.
In August of this year, the 2023 Border Free Trade Pilot Zone Collaborative Development Conference, jointly hosted by the Commerce Departments of Guangxi, Heilongjiang, and Yunnan, was held with the aim of fully leveraging the advantages of the three provinces and regions along the border, and linking them in benchmarking rules, park construction, industrial development, trade upgrading, and other aspects to "boldly try, boldly explore, and independently improve".
"The coordinated development of these pilot free trade zones has expanded the breadth and depth of institutional innovation, enriched the scenarios for the application of free trade policies, and improved the efficiency of free trade dividends," said Yang Zhengwei.
Leading by geese, mutual learning and learning to promote cooperation
The head goose leads the way, and the goose formation flies together. One prominent advantage of the "goose formation pattern" is reflected in the stable experience sharing mechanism, which is to better leverage the window, demonstration, leading, and driving role of the free trade pilot zone by replicating and promoting institutional innovation achievements.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, as of the end of 2022, China's respective trade pilot zones have launched more than 3400 reform measures. Among the 302 institutional innovations replicated and promoted at the national level, nearly half of them originated from Shanghai's pioneering or synchronous pilot projects.
To solve the problem of difficulty in obtaining certificates for enterprises, Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and Pudong New Area took the lead in piloting the "separation of certificates and licenses" reform nationwide in early 2016. The first batch of 116 administrative licensing items were reformed in five ways, including canceling approval and changing approval to filing.
In September 2017, the State Council decided to replicate and promote the mature practices of Shanghai's reform pilot in 10 free trade zones, including Tianjin, Liaoning, Zhejiang, Fujian, Henan, Hubei, Guangdong, Chongqing, Sichuan, and Shaanxi, based on an in-depth summary of the experience of the "separation of certificates and licenses" reform pilot in Pudong New Area. In mid September 2018, the Executive Meeting of the State Council decided to orderly promote the "separation of certificates and licenses" reform that has been piloted in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and other areas nationwide, solve the problem of "no admission for business", and optimize the business environment.
Shuang Dehui, Deputy Director of the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province, stated that the 21 pilot free trade zones maintain a friendly relationship of mutual learning and mutual learning. Every institutional breakthrough and innovative achievement of other pilot free trade zones points the way forward for the "Brother Pilot Free Trade Zone". Every time I participate in the exchange activities organized by the Coordination Department of Free Trade Zone Port Construction of the Ministry of Commerce, I feel that I have benefited a lot.
In the summer of 2019, the China Pilot Free Trade Zone was unveiled, and a new round of deepening reform and opening up was surging at the mouth of the Yellow River. In the following months, relevant officials from the Qingdao Free Trade Zone visited Shanghai multiple times to explore the experience of opening up, reform courage, and development opportunities.
In 2020, Shandong Province pioneered the "negative list style decentralization", which provided a strong driving force for the Qingdao Free Trade Zone to further expand its opening-up areas and accelerate its pace. Zhang Xingcheng, Deputy Director of the Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce and Deputy Director of the Shandong Provincial Free Trade Office, said, "Taking the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone as a sample, Qingdao is helping local enterprises allocate resources in a larger market space and seek collaborators globally."
In the view of Li Yufei, Deputy Director of the Hainan Provincial Party Committee's Deep Reform Office and the Free Trade Port Working Committee Office, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone is an indispensable leader and vanguard, providing an important demonstration for the opening up of other pilot free trade zones in the country and accumulating work experience.
In March of this year, the Hainan Free Trade Port and Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone held a strategic linkage and cooperation exchange symposium, reached a framework agreement, and established a mechanism for strategic docking and normalized cooperation and exchange between the two regions. The cooperation includes jointly promoting institutional innovation, replication and promotion, deepening exchanges and cooperation between various areas of the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and key parks of Hainan Free Trade Port. "Currently, we are planning to deepen cooperation with Guangdong, Hunan and other pilot free trade zones to promote coordinated development and jointly implement national strategic tasks through practical actions," said Li Yufei.
On the new journey of China's pilot free trade zone strategy, how can each pilot free trade zone further leverage its comparative advantages, focus on improving the level of linkage development, and amplify the comprehensive effect of reform? Yang Zhengwei gave several suggestions:
Firstly, with institutional innovation as the core, we will explore differentiated reforms in our respective trade pilot zones, learn from each other, and strengthen the overall, interrelated, and collaborative nature of innovation to complete the pilot tasks of common reforms; The second is to strengthen linkage in serving national strategies, promote information communication, resource sharing, and smooth flow of factors, and further optimize a market-oriented, legal, and international business environment. Thirdly, in promoting industrial development, we will combine local resources to promote the open development of characteristic and advantageous industries, achieve effective allocation of resources on a larger scale, and jointly build a more open and resilient industrial and supply chain; The fourth is to keep in mind the basic requirements of replicability and promotability, continue to play a demonstrative and driving role, and replicate and promote mature experiences of reform and innovation on a larger scale.
