By Xianze Li, Congshan Lu, iChongqing

Chongqing- Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) Matchmaking Session (the session) was held at Yuzhou Hotel in Chongqing at 2 p.m. on May 15, 2019. The theme of this meeting is upholding openness and inclusiveness for new opportunities of The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) regional cooperation. Representatives of relevant countries, local provinces, and states of the SCO and relevant free trade zones of China were invited and attended the meeting. They shared their experiences in the construction and development of the FTZ and carried out sharing, consultation, cooperation, and exchanges. The purpose of the meeting is to promote mutually beneficial cooperation between the FTZ of China and relevant SCO countries, local provinces and states in terms of cultural exchanges and economic and trade exchanges.

SCO Industrialist Committee, representatives of SCO entrepreneurs from relevant countries, local states, as well as relevant domestic TFZs and leading groups of Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone attended the session.

Pilot Free Trade Zone Matchmaking Session was held at Yuzhou Hotel to explore new opportunities for regional cooperation

Foreign direct investment in Chongqing ranked top in the West

President Xi Jinping indicated that Chongqing has obvious regional advantages and an important strategic position. Chongqing plays a unique and important role in the connection between The Belt and Road and the Yangtze River Economic Belt in the pattern of national regional development and opening to the outside world.

In recent years, Chongqing is striving fully to integrate into the construction of The Belt and Road and the development of the Yangtze River economic belt. The city is trying to take the lead in promoting opening up in the western region. In 2018, Chongqing's GDP exceeded 2 trillion yuan, the total value of foreign trade imports and exports surpassed 520 billion yuan, and the actual utilization of foreign capital reached 10.27 billion US dollars. The growth rate of foreign direct investment ranked among the top in the central and Western regions.

The Chongqing FTZ is the pioneer and main area in the construction of inland open highlands. For two years, it has persisted in institutional innovation as the core and promoted the development of high quality with high-level opening-up. It has brought strong impetus to the development of the western region, The Belt and Road and the development of the Yangtze River economic belt.

The brief situation of construction and development of Chongqing Pilot Free Trade Zone

China (Chongqing) Pilot Free Trade Zone was established on April 1, 2017. This large zone reaches 119.98 km², covering Liangjiang, Xiyong, and Guoyuangang. According to the deployment of the state, Chongqing FTZ will play an important role in the development of western areas. It is also going to be a connection point of The Belt and Road and the Yangtze River economic belt.

This is the gathering place of an open platform and emerging industries. Emerging industries such as Baidu, Ali, and Tencent will settle down successively, landmark projects will be landed, and the aviation industry will continue to grow. Chongqing will take the lead in the development of bonded aircraft leasing in the third batch of FTZs. Breakthroughs have been made in medical, financial and educational fields. Singapore Raffles Hospital settled down and 17 American secondary schools and other cross-border educational institutions were introduced. By the end of March 2019, 24,485 newly registered enterprises had been added to the Chongqing FTZ, with a total registered capital of 25.579 billion yuan. 1872 projects were introduced. The total amount of contractual agreements reached 56.19 billion yuan, and the import and export volume of foreign trade accounted for 3/5 of the city's total.

Business Introduction of Minsk State of Belarus

According to Ms. Tatiana, Chairman of economic commission of the Minsk Industrial Zone, there is a large new project aimed at developing business and providing a comfortable business environment for the public. On the one hand, Belarus, as a member of the Eurasian Union, can realize the free flow of goods, capital, and labor. On the other hand, Belarus is the neighbor of Poland, which makes us the eastern portal of the European Union. The zone is close to the capital and there are 2 million inhabitants. It has abundant scientific potential and labor resources. Every year there are 300,000 college students studying there, half of them study technology.

There is a large new project aimed at developing business and providing a comfortable business environment for the public

At the same time, this industrial zone is connected to Eurasia and Asia through a cross-continental road and rail network. It is adjacent to the International Airport and Baltic ports. It only takes two hours to fly to the major cities of the Allies. In the next ten years, it will be tax-free for income, land and real estate. For newly registered companies in the zone, land and necessary business infrastructure can be leased or purchased for a long time.

The purpose of this zone is to produce in modern fields such as machinery manufacturing, electronics, fine chemicals, pharmaceutics and so on. Meanwhile, it is open to any production, as long as the project is effective and beneficial to the environment.

There have been 44 companies from China, Russia, the United States, Austria, Germany and other countries registered in the zone. Chinese enterprises include China Merchants Bank, Huawei, ZTE and so on.

Representatives from relevant pilot free trade zones of China, relevant SCO countries and local representatives made speeches and introductions.