Free trade zones set to expand country's biz opportunities

Plan shows China's determination to become more accessible to global firms and investors, official says

China will further open up to the global market by building more free trade zones, a top government official told a forum on international investment held in Xiamen on Thursday.

"China has recently decided to establish new test grounds for free trade zones, showing the country's determination to expand its opening-up process," said Vice-Premier Wang Yang, at the International Investment Forum, which is part of the 19th China International Fair for Investment and Trade, held in Xianmen, Fujian province, from Sept 8-11.

The Chinese government plans to create seven free trade zone test areas in Liaoning, Zhejiang, Henan, Hubei, Sichuan and Shaanxi provinces as well as Chongqing municipality. The country currently has four free trade zones, which are in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian.

Wang said that CIFIT, which held its first session in 1997, is an opportunity to implement the agreements reached during the G20 Summit held in Hangzhou in early September.

"China's outbound investment was $118 billion in 2015, ranking it in the top three globally for the third consecutive year.

"In the domestic market, China will continue to lower foreign investment threshold in a wide range of industries, including finance, child care, architectural design, and e-commerce," said Wang.

You Quan, Party chief of Fujian province, said Fujian is well positioned to expand its opening-up process.

"Fujian has grown from an agricultural region into a place that embraces the global market. The central government has set up the Fujian Free Trade Zone and designated the province as a hub for the Belt and Road Initiative, which has given the province a huge edge in integrating into the global market," said You.

Fujian's import and export volume in 2015 was $170 billion with disbursement of foreign capital reaching nearly $7.7 billion.

Wang Jianlin, chairman of Wanda Group, suggested tourism could stimulate investment in the anemic domestic market.

"Tourism is one of the areas that guarantees stable returns in the long term, and this is important as we don't currently have many highly profitable investment channels," said Wang.

According to the National Development and Reform Commission, private-sector fixed-asset investment in the first half of this year stood at 15.9 trillion yuan ($2.4 trillion), up 2.8 percent from the same period last year.

The year-on-year growth rates of private sector investment have been on a downward trend since the peak rate of 28.9 percent recorded in March, 2012.

According to Wang, China's per capita income is one-sixth of that of the United States. Yet its tourism expenditure per capita is one-15th of that of the US and one-20th of that of Europe. Wang added that prospects for internal tourism consumption remain bright.

He added that his company has invested in a forest resort in a county called Baishan in Jilin province in northeastern China.The county's GDP volume has jumped from bottom to top spot in the province.

yangziman@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 09/09/2016 page10)