Tianjin FTZ showcases growth, opportunity

Tianjin holds out ‘olive branch’ for inviting global investment in service sector in the 2020 China International Fair for Trade in Services (CIFTIS) scheduled from Sept 4-9 in Beijing.

In the exhibition day dedicated to the port city, delegates from the Tianjin Pilot Free Trade Zone showcased its recent progress in services trade and its new technologies’ potential benefits to the attending 17,000 companies and institutions from 148 countries and regions.

In the first half of this year, there were 4,771 new market players and the use of foreign capital increased by 32.4 percent year-on-year to $1.256 billion.

Companies in the zone have gained promising developments in the economic pillar industries of financial leasing, biomedicines, high-end manufacturing and maintenance, the automobile trade, and cross-border e-commerce.

The pilot zone is home to the world's second largest airplane leasing market behind that of Ireland, and is also expanding rapidly in the fields of medical equipment, rail transportation and electrical equipment.

It has further eased market access for the services sector, adopting a credit evaluation system for administrative approval before companies start business. For companies not on the blacklist, they can get business approval right after handing in application materials.

The area imports about half of the country’s 'parallel' imported cars, while at the same time it has also maintained the largest car sales levels in the country for five consecutive years.

Liu Qingliang, director of the administration committee of the Dongjiang Free Trade Zone, said that in recent years the State has issued dozens of targeted pilot policies, prompting Dongjiang to form a platform for innovative development and to evolve into a new highland for opening up.

Over 343 companies from the port city attended the global trade platform to promote the city’s development in areas such as education, culture and health care.

The city is also cooperating with Beijing and Hebei to set up a joint exhibition area and to hold the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei service trade coordinated development forum.

CIFTIS is a large exhibition and trading platform dedicated to trade in services. This comprehensive, State-level event with a global reach has been held six times since 2012.

Under the theme of "Global Services, Shared Prosperity", this year’s CIFTIS is the first international trade event held offline since the outbreak of COVID-19.

It shows the country’s willingness to join hands with all entities at this trying time to work together to enable global trade in services to thrive and the world economy to recover at an early date.