TradePromotion

FJFTZ Aids to Stabilize Foreign Trade and Investment in Fujian

2020-8-12 9:39:36

Amid the COVID-19, the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone (FJFTZ) has been operating smoothly, making active contributions to the stable foreign trade and foreign investment of the province. The Department of Commerce of Fujian recently reported that in the first half of this year, the foreign investment in actual use of FJFTZ has reached USD 402 million, up 45.6% year-on-year, 23.9 percentage points higher than the overall figure of Fujian; the import and export volume totaled RMB 93.7 billion in the first five months, up 8% year-on-year, 14.7 percentage points higher than the province's average.

The Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone, with a total area of 118.04 square kilometers, was launched on April 21, 2015, and consists of the Fuzhou Area, Xiamen Area and Pingtan Area.

With great efforts given in aspects of financial support, policy guidelines to trade cooperation with Taiwan, FJFTZ has been dedicated in facilitating reforms and innovation, unleashing vitality of the enterprises, and promoting stable foreign trade and foreign investment.

This year, the Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone established a coping mechanism to help enterprises in the zone resume work and production.

Focusing on ensuring the supply chain and industrial chain, FJFTZ has launched initiatives such as direct loading at the port, direct delivery upon unloading, online examination and approval, and online financing of single window for international trade. The China-Europe (Xiamen) trains have been launched in the face of a significant reduction in sea and air logistics, with a total of 130 trains, valued at RMB 3.27 billion, shipped from January to June this year. Measures like online negotiation and "cloud signing" have been taken, and we have been proactive in introducing missing projects on industry chains, extension projects, and upgraded projects, including the Liando U Valley IoT Industrial Park and the Watertek Fuxi Big Data Project.

On the fifth anniversary of its official launch, FJFTZ is now in the critical period of its development and continuing to advance its pilot tasks. Our achievements in the first half of this year include: Jinyuan Unified Securities, the first joint venture securities created by the Mainland and Taiwan with the licensed of both regions, was approved by the China Securities Regulatory Commission; Fuzhou (including Pingtan) was approved to establish a cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zone; three enterprises were granted the qualification to import crude oil for non-SOE entities; and the country's first judicial collaborative center for intellectual property was established in Xiamen. By the end of June, 125 of the 136 key pilot tasks of the pilot deepening program of the zone had been completed, with an implementation rate of 92%.

In addition, FJFTZ has launched 36 new measures for institutional innovation, of which 24 are national firsts and 9 are tailored specifically for Taiwan. So far, a total of 446 innovative initiatives have been launched in 16 batches, 181 of which are the first in China and 98 targeted at Taiwan.

FJFTZ has been committed to deepening cross-strait cooperation. Since the beginning of this year, it has promoted the normal operation of "overseas warehouses" in Kaohsiung and Kinmen, and the smooth development of express shipping services; it has also created the new "Pingtan-Taiwan-Global" sea-air multimodal transport network to expand exports of agricultural and fishing products from Taiwan. In addition, the three areas are promoting the construction of "one-stop" service centers for Taiwan compatriots and Taiwan enterprises, optimizing administrative approvals and public services for Taiwan; the recognition of professional qualifications for Taiwan has been further promoted, breaking down barriers for professional certification between the two regions, and facilitating the employment and entrepreneurship of Taiwan compatriots on the mainland.

The Fujian Pilot Free Trade Zone also gives full play to "bonded +" "finance +" and "Internet +" policies, and promotes a number of demonstration projects such as aviation maintenance, headquarters economy and fund towns. The industrial platform has become bigger and stronger, and the development of a number of new businesses has been accelerated such as Internet of Things, cross-border e-commerce, financing and leasing and offshore trade. A total of 381 private investment institutions have settled in Mawei Fund Town in the Fuzhou Area, with a fund management scale of RMB 154 billion and RMB 24 billion invested in projects; a total of USD 8.68 billion in foreign exchange revenue and expenditure has been handled by offshore trade in the Xiamen Area; a total of 70 headquartered enterprises have been attracted by the Pingtan headquarters economy, with revenue of RMB 18.3 billion in the first half of the year.