Further Opening Up the Service Sector and China Inbound-Outbound Forum was staged at China National Convention Center (CNCC) on September 8. It was hosted by Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau and the Center for China & Globalization (CCG), and co-organized by American Chamber of Commerce in China, European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (the European Chamber), Canada-China Business Council, China-Britain Business Council, SwissCham China, and China-Australia Chamber of Commerce.
Speakers at the forum include Yang Jinbai, Vice Mayor of the People's Government of Beijing Municipality, Yan Ligang, Director General of the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, and Wang Huiyao, President and Director of CCG, Vice President of China Association for International Economic Cooperation, and counsellor of the State Council.
Yang Jinbai pointed out that in the face of challenges and opportunities in the new era, Beijing stands at a new starting point for further opening-up. In the next step, it will actively implement the three suggestions put forward by General Secretary Xi Jinping in his remarks at the Global Trade in Services Summit of the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services, and strive to build a national integrated demonstration zone for greater openness in the service sector, as well as a pilot free trade zone featuring scientific and technological innovation, opening-up of the service sector and digital economy.
Specifically, Beijing will do a good job in the following areas. First, it will formulate reasonable implementation plans, break down tasks and goals, and come up with a clearly defined timetable and roadmap. Second, the city will intensify the efforts in policy communication and public advocacy, and it will also coordinate with targeted market entities, assisting them in making full use of these policies. Third, the city will bring in and foster a number of demonstration projects and industrial parks, strengthen their catalytic effects, and build a high-level opening-up platform for the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, in a bid to promote greater openness of China's service sector in terms of the pattern, model, environment and mechanism and to form a new pattern of reform and opening-up at a higher level. Beijing aims to, by 2030, realize trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, free flow of cross-border capital, employment and transportation, and safe and orderly flow of data. With an opening-up system dovetailing with international investment and trade rules, the service sector in Beijing will strive to be one of the world's best in terms of output and competitiveness.
Chen Deming, former Minister of Commerce, President of China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment and Honorary Chairman of CCG, Beate Trankmann, UNDP Resident Representative in China, Nicolas Chapuis, European Union Ambassador to China, and Joerg Wuttke, President of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China also delivered keynote speeches at the opening ceremony. They expressed their confidence in Beijing's endeavors towards win-win cooperation, high-quality development and opening-up at a higher level.
Ambassadors from Canada, Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore, Finland, Ireland, New Zealand, and Ghana attended the forum, together with over 40 renowned experts and scholars from home and abroad and representatives from international organizations, international chambers of commerce (ICCs) and multinational organizations. They shared their ideas on the opening-up of the service sector, scientific and technological cooperation, digital economy, as well as prospects of regional agreements and free trade zones, given the world's economic and trade situation in the context of the pandemic and the trend of economic globalization. They also held discussions on how to seize new opportunities in the city presented by opening-up, devise new strategies and plans for development, and thus emerge stronger amidst the restructuring of global supply chains, industrial chains and value chains.
CCG released the Report on Chinese Enterprises Globalization (2020), published other research results, and called for the establishment of a cooperation network for ICCs. The network will act as a new mechanism and platform to give full play to the role of ICCs, advance cooperation between Chinese and foreign enterprises, and realize a win-win situation for all.
