The decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on several major issues concerning upholding and improving the socialist system with Chinese characteristics, promoting the modernization of national governance system and governance capacity, which was adopted at the Fourth Plenary Session of the 19th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, made important arrangements for "building a new open economic system with a higher level", emphasized "improving the management system of national treatment plus negative list before foreign investment access, and promoted Dynamic rules, regulations, management, standards and other institutional openness ". The category of institutional opening reflects the new realm and height of the content and practice of opening up, and also marks the transformation of China's opening up from commodity and factor flow type to rule type. Shanghai pilot Free Trade Zone, through speeding up the establishment of a system linking up with the international prevailing rules, studies and puts forward opening policies and systems with strong international competitiveness, so as to better meet the requirements of the transformation from the opening up of commodity and factor flows to the opening up of rules and other institutional types, explore the way forward for the opening up to enter a new stage of institutional opening, and accumulate more replicable for the whole country Generalizable experience.
Institutional opening is the inevitable choice
Following the trend of economic globalization and opening to the outside world in a systematic way is a practical action for China to take the initiative to meet the challenges of international economic and trade rules and consciously apply the internal logic of opening to the outside world. From the perspective of China's reform and opening up process, the development of open economy has roughly gone through the following stages: the first stage, actively joining the international economic division of labor, introducing international capital, advanced technology and management elements, and accepting, learning, familiarizing and applying international economic and trade rules. In the second stage, we should connect with the WTO framework system of international trade rules, promote reform through opening-up, make good use of both domestic and foreign markets as a whole, and deeply participate in the division of global industrial chain value chain. In the third stage, we will explore the integration with the rules and management standards of the international economic and trade system in an all-round way, build a new open economic system through institutional innovation in the pilot Free Trade Zone, and focus on the implementation of the pre entry national treatment plus negative list management system for foreign investment, so as to improve the level of the open economy in a wider range, wider field and deeper level.
Institutional opening adapts to the trend of opening and expanding from the manufacturing sector to the service sector. It pays attention to the coordinated opening of goods trade and service trade, bilateral trade and two-way investment. It requires the transformation from institutional adaptation to system construction, and forms a set of institutional system and regulatory mode suitable for the development of open economy. The transformation from a high standard follower of international economic and trade rules to a participant contributor and a perfecter of the rules shows that China's ability to participate in the formulation of international economic and trade rules is constantly enhanced, while promoting the integration of domestic system with international rules, it is more active to participate in the formulation of International Economic and trade rules.
Continuously optimize the business environment from the system level
As a "new version" of opening and upgrading, institutional opening, characterized by "national treatment before foreign investment access" and "negative list management", is a landmark content of in-depth exploration on the institutional level in the pilot free trade zone. For example, one of the most obvious changes in the upgraded "negative list" catalogue of the Shanghai pilot free trade zone is that the contents listed in the "list" have been reduced from about 190 items initially to more than 30 items. This kind of change directly reflects China's practical action to expand its opening-up, the fulfillment of its commitment to continue to expand its opening-up, and its commitment to form a seamless "docking" relationship with the international economy in terms of institutional rules and standards at the level of institutional opening.
The rules, regulations, management, standards and other specific contents covered by institutional opening are closely related to the economic operation mechanism and the relevant aspects of economic management system, and reflect the profound connotation of mutual respect, equality and mutual benefit, fair competition, good faith and rule of law, and the pursuit of efficiency. Not only that, on the basis of the docking of rules and standards, but also with the substantial increase of the scale of economic exchanges and the number of personnel exchanges, it will naturally bring exchanges and mutual perception and understanding with the concept, culture, behavior, value standards and other aspects.
In the connection of rules, standards and systems, we should pay special attention to strengthening legislation. The law of the people's Republic of China on foreign investment, which has been promulgated and implemented, is a detailed and specific definition of the international practices followed by opening up, the respect and protection of foreign investment and various rights and interests including intellectual property rights. In order to implement the relevant laws and policies, it has become a routine policy transparency information that the relevant departments issue the "negative list of foreign investment" every year. Similarly, the pilot free trade zone will refresh and publish the "negative list" every year, and constantly optimize the business environment from the institutional level.
Give full play to the "vanguard" role of opening up
Based on the practical experience of Shanghai pilot free trade zone over the years, the new zone of Shanghai pilot free trade zone was officially launched in August 2019, forming a new "increment" of institutional open practice. Shanghai pilot Free Trade Zone, with its relatively mature management and operation system and experience, is committed to making new breakthroughs in the rules and standards of economic management system. The new area of Shanghai pilot free trade zone can be positioned at a high starting point on the basis of absorbing the experience and achievements of forerunners, and promote the "industrial integration" of advanced manufacturing and modern service industry. In the practice of promoting institutional opening, Pudong, as a "pacesetter" of opening up, has been further developed.
We can continue to make efforts to promote institutional opening from the following aspects. One is to deal with the relationship between point and area, that is, to deal with the relationship between the "stress test" on the free trade zone point and the replication and promotion on the whole country. In order to improve the construction quality of the pilot Free Trade Zone, we should follow the principle of deepening system innovation and strengthening replication and promotion, but we can't be afraid to carry out more open "stress test" because replication and promotion will imprison our thinking and bind our hands and feet. The second is to deal with the internal and external relations, that is, to deal with the relationship between the independent opening of the free trade test zone and the bilateral or multilateral opening of free trade agreements. On the one hand, as long as the focus issues in bilateral or multilateral FTA negotiations are in line with China's reform direction and overall controllable risks, we can consider to focus on the pilot free trade zone to accumulate experience in advance; on the other hand, for the rule system that China expects to lead and promote, we can explore and form a whole set of experience in the pilot Free Trade Zone in advance. The third is to deal with the relationship between individuality and generality, that is, to deal with the relationship between the differential empowerment and the overall empowerment of the pilot free trade zones in different regions, and to carry out the exploration of differentiation and specialization. The fourth is to deal with the relationship between management and release, that is, to deal with the relationship between highly open and efficient supervision. High openness is based on efficient supervision, and the degree of openness depends on the level of supervision ability. While promoting institutional opening, pilot free trade zones should adhere to the overall national security concept as a guide, and focus on strengthening the construction of in-process and post regulatory system and regulatory capacity.
In contrast to the work content of institutional opening in terms of rules, regulations, management and standards, it takes the lead in exploring and realizing all-round organic connection and positive interaction. We will accelerate the establishment of a fair, open and transparent market regulatory environment for all types of market players. Promote the effective connection of the management measures before and after the access of domestic and foreign-funded enterprises, realize the equal operation of all kinds of market subjects according to law; take the lead in pilot the mechanism of quick confirmation of rights and quick investigation and punishment of infringement, improve the punitive compensation system for infringement, and implement stricter intellectual property protection. Take the lead in exploring the establishment of a regulatory model and regulatory system suitable for a higher level of open economy. To better support the international business operation, it is necessary to target the "domestic and overseas" regulatory mode of high-level free trade ports and free trade parks. We will accelerate international mutual recognition of standards and certification, and improve the ability to formulate international standards. Expand international cooperation and use relevant platforms to promote the exchange of international customs information and mutual recognition of supervision. In terms of the business environment evaluation system, we will explore more legal, market-oriented and convenient evaluation standards to contribute to the improvement of the world bank's business environment evaluation standards.
Source: Economic Daily