Confidence
Integrated National Development Zone for Opening up the Services Sector in August 2020, 49 pioneering and innovative policies have been implemented there. The robust development of the two zones, with the latter covering the entire capital city, has contributed to the city’s greater opening up, where accumulative paid-in foreign investment amounted to $55.14 billion and 5,367 foreign-funded enterprises were added in the past three years.
For example, a supporting policy constitutes a maximum of 50 million yuan ($6.85 million) in financial support for world-class projects of foreign-funded research and development (R&D) centres in Beijing, and a maximum of 20 million yuan ($2.74 million) in financial support for expanding and upgrading foreign-funded R&D centres, according to Liu. “We provide foreign investors with tangible benefits,” she added.
While foreign business leaders all welcomed Beijing’s efforts to boost its services sector and trade in services, they still expected more supportive policies. Jens Hildebrandt, executive director of the German Chamber of Commerce in China-North China, said at the roundtable discussion that he looks forward to seeing more detailed measures for the implementation of the 24-Point Guideline in areas such as the opening up of the public procurement market, particularly those concerning the creation of fast-track channels for foreign-funded enterprises.
Noah Fraser, executive director of the Canada China Business Council, underlined foreign-funded companies’ need for “more facilitation in Chinese visa application procedures.”
Other participants, including Tom Hoogendijk, president of the Benelux Chamber of Commerce in China, and Denis Simon, president of the Alliance of Global Talent Organisations, also articulated their hopes that the 24-Point Guideline will be implemented to the fullest, given it “has the potential to further increase predictability in investment and reduce misgivings about investment.”
During the first seven months of this year, China’s trade in services maintained steady growth, rising more than 8 percent year on year to 3.67 trillion yuan ($505.4 billion) in total import and export volume, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
Moreover, China had expanded its share of global commercial services exports from 3 percent in 2005 to 5.4 percent in 2022, according to a report jointly released by the World Bank and the World Trade Organisation in July.
“China is actively promoting high-quality development through high-standard opening up,” Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen said at the 3 September forum. “In developing the services sector and trade in services, China will work with all other countries and parties to advance inclusive development through openness, including easing market entry and accelerating negotiations on the negative list for trade in services and investment.”
The growing Chinese market is ringing in new opportunities for other countries. Last year, over 140,000 Chinese students went to study in the United Kingdom. And many British schools today intend to expand their collaboration with Chinese institutions, Geraldine McCafferty, deputy head of Mission at the British Embassy Beijing, said at the CCG forum.