Service sector capital limits eased
SHANGHAI will ease restrictions on foreign capital in the service sector for getting access to the city’s market and launching businesses.
The move aims to further promote opening-up of the sector to become more competitive in international cooperations.
Shanghai recently issued a new round of measures to expand opening-up in the service sector, with Shanghai Vice Mayor Xu Kunlin introducing the policies in detail at a press conference yesterday.
Openness is the biggest advantage of Shanghai, of which the opening-up in the service sector can be the top priority, Xu said.
In the first half of the year, Shanghai saw an increase of 9.1 percent in value-added output in the tertiary industry at 1.1673 trillion yuan (US$165.36 billion), accounting for 71.2 percent of the total GDP of the city.
With the implementation of “100 measures on expanding opening-up” as well as institutional innovations in the Shanghai pilot free trade zone, the city has tested more support policies for promoting openness in various industries including new energy vehicles, finance and the maintenance industry.
By the end of June, the total number of enterprises settling in the pilot free trade zone had reached 2,998 as a result of the opening measures, among which 594 were newly established from 2018.
The new measures will boost the city’s development as an international trading center, help improve the business environment, and support the deepening of FTZ reforms, Xu said.
The newly issued measures show that Shanghai will expand the openness in the cross-border trade in services, reduce restrictions on people traveling, and improve trade facilitation services.
For instance, the city lowered the threshold of total asset amount of foreign investors for setting up investment companies in Shanghai, and canceled the requirement on the number of enterprises they had already established.
Travel agencies with capital from Hong Kong or Macau and registered in the Shanghai FTZ will be allowed to launch the outbound tourism business (except to Taiwan) if they have the business license for over two years; have operated domestic and inbound tourism business in Shanghai for over two years; and have never been punished by authorities for infringing the legal rights of tourists, according to Cheng Meihong, deputy director of the Shanghai Administration of Culture and Tourism.
The city will also expand opening up in the financial services industry to accelerate the development of an international financial center, for which five new measures will be implemented such as expanding the intellectual property pledge financing and promoting the financing and leasing business of intangible assets.
The city will also implement measures to build an open trade facilitation service system, enhance the ability to gather global innovation resources, and strengthen the ability of modern shipping services.