10 years of free trade zone: always remember the "original intention" of reform and opening up
Ten years is often marked as a special historical milestone and also represents a new height.
Today marks the 10th anniversary of the establishment of the China Pilot Free Trade Zone. This is the starting point for a major strategy. Through pilot trials, replication and promotion here, 21 free trade pilot zones have been successively covered across the country. With less than four thousandths of the land area, they have contributed 18% of the country’s total foreign investment and import and export, becoming a new era of reform and opening up. New Highlands.
Recently, General Secretary Xi Jinping issued important instructions on further promoting the construction of the Free Trade Pilot Zone, emphasizing that on the basis of a comprehensive summary of ten years of construction experience, we must deeply implement the Free Trade Pilot Zone improvement strategy, bravely be a pioneer in forging ahead and overcoming difficulties, and be a pioneer in overcoming difficulties. Carry out exploration in a wider range of areas and at a deeper level, and strive to build a higher-level free trade pilot zone. It is necessary to uphold the party's overall leadership, adhere to high-level openness as the guide and institutional innovation as the core, coordinate development and security, align with international economic and trade rules with high standards, further promote institutional openness, strengthen overall reform planning and system integration, and promote the entire industry The innovative development of the chain will enable the free trade pilot zone to better play a demonstration role.
"Enhancement" - the free trade pilot zone that has gone through ten years has carried great expectations and also shouldered an important historical responsibility. Ten years ago, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone came into being to align with new international rules. Today, ten years later, the global economic and trade pattern and rules have been profoundly reshaped. Free trade zones must align with new international rules and carry out institutional exploration to a greater extent. They not only pursue "integration", but also look forward to "definition" and "leading".
In this process, as the starting point of the free trade zone strategy and the "pioneer" of Chinese-style modernization, Shanghai undoubtedly shoulders a heavier mission. At this moment, looking back on the past ten years, what we need to remember most is the "original intention" of reform and opening up in the free trade zone.
Reviewing the ten-year history, there are two words that may best understand the "original intention" of the free trade zone. The first word is "negative list". Late at night on the first day of the establishment of the Shanghai Free Trade Zone, people waited for China’s first negative list for foreign investment. In the following ten years, this negative list has been iterated several times, from the initial nearly 200 items to more than 30 items. The market openness has continued to increase, and the government's own reforms have continued to deepen. It can be said that the "origin" of these reform measures, such as the examination and approval system to the filing system, single window, separation of licenses and licenses, is the negative list, which represents the core task of the free trade zone - institutional innovation.
The second word is "stress testing." Since version 1.0, the Shanghai Free Trade Zone has undergone several expansions and iterations. It has always been dynamically benchmarking against the internationally accepted and highest-level economic and trade rules, and has carried out a series of unprecedented stress tests in order to comply with the rules and lead the rules. Today, ten years later, the global economic and trade landscape has undergone tremendous changes. Opening to the outside world has expanded to institutional opening, and the stress test task assigned to Shanghai is even more important. It is in this process that the free trade zone is interpreted as "boldly experimenting, boldly breaking out, and independent reform." requirements, which also represents the core mission of the free trade zone - high-level openness.
Understanding this original intention, we can understand why, in the ten years along the way, the free trade zone has never been satisfied with becoming a simple economic growth point, let alone a "private reserve", but must be a highland for institutional innovation, The highland of reform and opening up.
Only by deepening reform and expanding opening up, only by fundamentally removing the obstacles and bottlenecks that once restricted the flow of factors, and consciously thinking about problems by standing side by side with the globe, will all the expected or unanticipated breakthroughs become a reality one by one, and will we be able to survive the turbulent times. In the cloudy environment, we will lay a solid foundation for our own development and create a new world. The testing of various new things, the integration of various reform measures, and the establishment of a series of supporting systems and even the rule of law system all revolve around adhering to and carrying forward the original intention of reform and opening up.
Reform and opening up is a key move that determines the future and destiny of contemporary China. Continuously deepening high-level reform and opening up is also the foundation for facing new global competition today and an important driving force for promoting high-quality development.
In the past ten years, nine words have always been associated with the Shanghai Free Trade Zone - bold experiment, bold breakthrough, and independent reform. What they express is exactly the spiritual temperament and action consciousness that high-level reform and opening up should have. Today is a new starting point, and in the face of greater possibilities in the future, we must of course add more footnotes to it with more pragmatic and powerful actions.
