China’s Firmly Advancing Opening Up to the Outside World in 2024

China’s Firmly Advancing Opening Up to the Outside World in 2024

In 2024, opportunities and challenges coexist, growth and breakthroughs coexist. Against the backdrop of the ever-changing global economy, China has taken firm steps to continuously expand its opening-up to the outside world, promote high-quality economic development, and inject more stability and momentum into world economic growth.

The policy pillar is firmly established, and strong positive signals are spreading

The Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee made an overall plan to further comprehensively deepen reform and promote Chinese path to modernization, pointing out the direction for steadily expanding institutional opening. Under the framework of improving the high-level opening-up system and mechanism, actively connecting high standard economic and trade rules in multiple fields, and creating a transparent, stable, and predictable institutional environment; Expand independent opening of multiple markets; Maintain the multilateral trading system centered around the World Trade Organization and actively participate in the reform of the global economic governance system; Expand the global network of high standard free trade zones and optimize the open and cooperative environment. With the deepening of opening-up to the outside world, the prospects are becoming increasingly broad.

At the level of foreign trade, the recent meetings of the Central Political Bureau and the Central Economic Work Conference have both explicitly proposed “stabilizing foreign trade”. The Ministry of Commerce has issued nine measures to expand the coverage and coverage of export credit insurance, increase financing support for foreign trade enterprises, optimize cross-border trade settlement, promote the development of cross-border e-commerce, and expand the export of characteristic agricultural products and other commodities, in order to promote stable growth of foreign trade and actively cultivate new growth points for foreign trade in the long run.

The pilot free trade zone and Hainan Free Trade Port have also opened up an effective gateway for China to promote reform and development through opening up. China’s long-term development of foreign trade is resilient and the road is wide, “said Yao Weiqun, Executive Dean of the Shanghai International Trade Center Strategic Research Institute at Shanghai University of International Business and Economics.

At the level of foreign investment, the channels for utilizing foreign investment are constantly expanding, and the utilization efficiency is significantly enhanced. Relying on the General Office of the State Council to promote high-level opening up to the outside world, greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, and 24 measures in five aspects, a national negative list for foreign investment access has been released, and restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing industry have been fully lifted; Expand the pilot program for opening up the medical field and allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in 9 regions across the country; Equal treatment of domestic and foreign enterprises in government procurement. Foreign investment confidence in China has increased, and their rights and interests have been more fully protected.

At the level of institutional innovation, the development vitality of emerging fields is surging. For the first time in the field of service trade, a negative list management system has been established nationwide for cross-border service trade. In the field of digital trade, institutional openness, improvement of relevant governance systems, and strengthening organizational guarantees have attracted much attention in supporting the development of segmented fields and business entities, promoting cross-border data flow, and other aspects.

The comprehensive relaxation and optimization of the visa free transit policy is also an innovative benefit, “Yao Weiqun mentioned. The policy not only unleashes the potential for high-quality development of” China Travel “cultural tourism, but also greatly improves the convenience of foreign investment in China, allowing more overseas professionals to participate in China’s modernization construction. Openness, inclusiveness, and win-win cooperation have increasingly become the characteristics of China’s economic development.