We will take high-quality Belt and Road cooperation as a guide to expand new space in the international market. We will uphold the principle of extensive consultation, joint contribution and shared benefits to ensure steady and sustained progress in the Belt and Road Initiative, build a closer and broader community of shared interests, and expand our circle of friends. We will accelerate the development of the Belt and Road Free Trade Area and promote soft connectivity of rules and standards. We will strengthen the construction of new land-sea routes and China-Europe Express trains in the western region, and build major trade routes for the Belt and Road in the central and western regions.
We will promote balanced and coordinated development of regional opening-up with a focus on expanding opening-up in the central and western regions. We should strengthen complementarity and mutual reinforcement of opening up in coastal, inland and border regions, and build a layout of opening up in which sea and land are interconnected and the east and west mutually benefit each other. We should tap the potential of the central, western and northeastern regions, move them from open depressions to open highlands, actively undertake the relocation of processing trade, and cultivate global processing and manufacturing bases. We will take the development of digital trade as an important starting point to enhance the level of opening up and promote the digital transformation of industries and trade in the central and western regions.
We will promote institutional innovation and the transformation and upgrading of the open economy in the Yangtze River Delta, the Pearl River Delta and the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei metropolitan area. To strengthen the mutually reinforcing mechanism and synergy effect of major national strategies and high-level opening-up, promote coordinated opening-up of strategic plans such as the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, the development of the Yangtze River Economic Belt, the regional integration of the Yangtze River Delta, the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, ecological protection and high-quality development of the Yellow River Basin, the development of the Chengdu-Chongqing twin City economic Circle, and the development of the Hainan Free Trade Port.
We will promote the upgrading of industrial structure by expanding the opening up of knowledge-intensive service industries. Opening up the service sector is the key to enhancing industrial competitiveness and maintaining supply chain security. We should promote the opening up of digital technology, research and development, design, healthcare, culture and education as an important support to improve the supply-side structure, meet the needs of upgrading consumption, promote the transformation of manufacturing and develop the digital economy. At the same time, with the goal of promoting the transformation of the manufacturing industry into digital, intelligent, green and service-oriented, we will improve the opening quality of the manufacturing industry, improve the utilization of foreign investment in advanced manufacturing, and attract service systems such as R&D and design centers, supply chain management centers, data centers and settlement centers of multinational corporations.
Promote independent innovation by strengthening cooperation on opening up and innovation. Support leading enterprises to build a global innovation platform, guide Chinese enterprises to integrate into the global innovation chain, vigorously develop research and development, industrial design, cross-border e-commerce and other digital platforms, and combine global innovation resources in a wider range of fields; To build an open innovation chain based on the industrial chain and supply chain, especially to give full play to the unique advantages of foreign enterprises in technology introduction, the role of adhesiveness in the construction of global innovation chain, the role of internal introduction and external communication in the combination of global innovation elements, and to build a new mode of technical cooperation with developed countries linked by the industrial chain and supply chain. We will establish a green channel mechanism to attract overseas talents to innovate and start businesses, and improve institutional arrangements in terms of remuneration, long-term residence, children’s schooling, and ease of entry and exit.
We will promote institutional reform and innovation by matching high-standard international economic and trade rules. We will focus on accelerating the reform of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation by standardizing the rules of the CPTPP, promoting the improvement of the quality and efficiency of trade in goods, the innovative development of trade in services, and the advanced layout of digital trade. “Bringing in” and “going out” will reinforce each other. In terms of trade, we will continue to lower tariffs on trade in goods, improve the negative list management system for cross-border trade in services, and create a favorable policy environment for developing new forms and models of digital trade and raising the level of digital trade in an all-round way. In terms of investment, we will improve the management of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list, continue to reduce the negative list for foreign investment access, gradually eliminate mandatory requirements and discriminatory treatment such as joint venture and nationality, make full use of quasi-camp access, strengthen international dispute settlement mechanisms, and foster a market environment of fair competition and a legal environment. We will give full play to the pilot free trade Zone and the Hainan Free Trade Port’s pioneering role and institutional integration advantages, grant greater autonomy to reform, conduct opening-up stress tests on the CPTPP rules, and create a plateau of institutional opening-up.
We will take an active part in building the global economic governance system and play a guiding role. By March 2022, China had signed 19 free trade agreements (FTAs) with 26 countries. We should actively expand bilateral and regional FTAs, especially with developed countries. We should continue to advance the China-Japan-ROK FTA and the China-Eu Comprehensive Investment Agreement, and build an upgraded FTA based on high standards and rules. We will strive to build a global network of free trade zones and share the fruits of China’s opening up and development with the world. The multilateral trading system and regional trading arrangements are the two wheels driving economic globalization. We should firmly uphold the core values of the multilateral WTO mechanism, oppose unilateralism and protectionism, safeguard the interests of developing countries, and support WTO reform. We will play a constructive role in the G20, APEC, BRICS and other multilateral platforms, and support the IMF and the World Bank in playing a coordinating role in promoting reform of the international monetary system. Advancing the negotiations on CPTPP and Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA); RCEP is an important platform for our country to participate in regional cooperation. It plays a strategic role in expanding regional industrial chain system facing East Asia and Southeast Asia, and lays the foundation of regulatory reform for our country’s entry into CPTPP. We should promote their implementation and play a leading role.
Balance open development with security. We should fully consider the economic, financial and trade impacts, cyber attacks, data leakage, and food and energy crises that may arise from the combined impact of the epidemic and geopolitical conflicts, accelerate the improvement of top-level design, improve the risk early warning, monitoring and prevention system, and introduce effective countermeasures. We will effectively safeguard national security, people’s security, political security, financial security, cyber data security, energy and resources security, food security, public health security, and overseas assets security. We will increase the import and reserve of oil, minerals and other energy resources, improve the systems for national security review, anti-monopoly review, management of the national technical safety list, and the list of unreliable entities for foreign investment, and pay particular attention to preventing systemic financial risks triggered by the international financial crisis.