Chongqing–A year witnesses significant progress of trade in services in Chongqing, with 70% of comprehensively deepening the innovative development of trade in services plans have been implemented, local authorities said Monday.

The Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce held a press conference for the first anniversary of the pilot program for comprehensively deepening the innovation and development of trade in services on November 29.

Ye Guanlan, Director of the Department of Trade in Services of the Chongqing Municipal Commission of Commerce, stated that 111 of the 160 pilot tasks for comprehensively deepening the innovative development of service trade had been implemented. The implementation rate is nearly 70%, in terms of opening up Chongqing's service industry, improving the facilitation of service trade, and boosting the environmental optimization.

Achievements in a year

Driven by this pilot, Chongqing's service import and export data was 67.5 billion yuan in 2020, leading development in the central and western regions. From January to October this year, Chongqing's offshore service outsourcing executed value was US$1.435 billion, a year-on-year increase of 51.4%. The case of Chongqing, "Exploring a New Model of Foreign-related Legal Services," was successfully selected as the first batch of best practice cases nationwide.

Support qualified Hong Kong and Macao banking and insurance companies to set up branches in pilot areas in the financial field. In the medical field, support Ping An Health and Fosun Health to set up institutions in Chongqing as foreign and domestic professional health insurance institutions. In the logistics field, four international cargo routes from Chongqing to Brussels, Tokyo, Dhaka, and Bangalore have been opened this year. The total number of all-cargo routes in the city has increased to 26. A pilot program for domestic law firms hiring foreign lawyers has been carried out in the legal field. At present, eight foreign lawyers have been hired as foreign legal advisers. In education, two new Sino-foreign cooperative education projects at the undergraduate level and one Sino-foreign cooperative education project at the junior college level have been added this year.

Next work measures

Ye Guanlan pointed out that in the next step, Chongqing will fully grasp the opportunities brought by RCEP after it enters into force. Also, Chongqing will Combine the transformation and upgrading of service trade with the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry, combine the expansion and strengthening of service trade with the satisfaction of the people's high-quality life, combine the consolidation of traditional service trade with the cultivation of emerging service trade.

Promote the full implementation of the pilot tasks. Tasks such as actively striving for the data outbound security assessment pilot, the digital RMB pilot, the domestic and foreign currency integration cross-border fund pool pilot, the mainland law firm, and the Hong Kong and Macau law firm joint venture pilot, for mutual recognition of professional service qualifications between the Mainland, Hong Kong, and Macau pilot project, etc. Deepen the implementation of projects continuously and form industrial cluster development. Focus on project needs and work with relevant municipal departments and pilot areas to resolve enterprise development policy obstacles.

Focus on key areas to promote project demonstration, industry concentration, and function integration. With the help of platforms such as the Service Trade Fair, the Shanghai International Trade Fair, and the China International Import Expo, investment promotion will focus on finance, culture, digital trade, professional services, medical care, education, testing, and maintenance, and other fields. Strengthen the summary, refinement, replication, and promotion of cases. A number of experience cases will be summarized and refined to explore the national service trade path. A number of pilot experience cases will be replicated and promoted based on the actual development of the pilot areas in Chongqing.

Ye Guanlan said that through this pilot, Chongqing will be added to the "dual circulation" new development pattern and strive to achieve a breakthrough of 100 billion yuan in Chongqing's service trade by 2023.