According to the guidance of Suzhou Municipal Party Committee and Suzhou Municipal People’s Government, to thoroughly implement the State Council’s “Circular on Measures of Expanding Opening-up and Active Use of Foreign Investment” (No. 5 Regulation of the State Council in 2017), “Circular on Measures of Promoting Foreign Investment Growth” (No. 39 Regulation of the State Council in 2017), and “Circular on Measures of Active and Effective Use of Foreign Investment to Promote High-Quality Economic Development” (No. 19 Regulation of the State Council in 2018), and Jiangsu Provincial People’s Government’s “Guidelines on Policies of Expanding Opening-up and Active Use of Foreign Investment” (No. 33 Regulation of the Jiangsu Provincial Government in 2017), “Guidelines on Promoting the Improvement of Quality and Efficiency of Foreign Investment ” (No. 67 Regulation of the Jiangsu Provincial Government in 2018) and other policies for promoting use of foreign investment, Suzhou adopts “Measures on the Promotion of Effective Use of Foreign Investment and High-Quality Development” (No. 71 Regulation of Suzhou Municipal Government in 2018). Explanations of these measures are as follows:
1. Background and Purpose
(1). Positive response to the call of the state for promoting the use of foreign investment
Recently, to call for further bettering work concerning use of foreign investment the State Council issued No. 5 Regulation in 2017, No. 39 Regulation in 2017 and No. 19 Regulation in 2018 in close succession and the Provincial People’s Government also issued No. 33 Regulation in 2017 and No. 67 Regulation in 2017. Giving full consideration to its own situation, Suzhou actively implements these policies by first drawing up “Guidelines on Implementation of Policies of Expanding Opening-up and Active Use of Foreign Investment” (No. 68 Regulation of the Suzhou Municipal Government in 2017) last year and then formulating the present series of measures, which make the city well-equipped to implement the national and provincial-level policies in a full and down-to-earth manner.
(2). Effective measures to deal with the complex current external economic environment
Since the beginning of this year, the global economic environment has become increasingly changeable and complicated. Correspondingly, the foreign-funded economy and further implementation of foreign investment in Suzhou are confronted with a number of challenges, including the demand of boosting foreign investors’ confidence, providing targeted all-around services with efficiency and highlighting advantages of differentiated policies. The present measures are issued with the aim to further optimize the development environment for foreign investment.
(3). Effective measures to meet shared demands for services of foreign enterprises
Over the last few years, in addition to the regularized practice of “Serving Foreign Enterprises Month”, Suzhou has also launched a series of programmes, including the “Month of Serving Foreign Enterprises and Promoting Key Projects” and surveys on foreign enterprises’ business environment. These programmes help determine a batch of typical problems, difficulties, demands and suggestions, which shows the direction for further optimization of foreign enterprises’ business environment. The present measures strive to be well-targeted so as to offer better services to enterprises which intend to transform, upgrade or develop further.
2. Key Features
The Measures is formulated by following the principle of “making new ground in pursuing opening up on all fronts, adopting the policy of high-level liberalization and facilitation for trade and investment, taking the lead in pursuing optimal development through innovation in the eastern region” made clear in the 19th CPC National Congress report as well as other related policies at the state and provincial levels. Being well-targeted and highly pragmatic, this set of measures are also made in close conjunction with Suzhou’s strategy of developing into a city which serves as “Two Benchmarks” (the benchmarks of a high-level well-off society and a model with Jiangsu traits for the road of modernization with Chinese characteristics), runs with “Four Focuses” (focuses on drive of innovation, reform and opening up, urban and rural construction and cultural inheritance), and features an integrated image of “Four Famous Cities” (images of “a modern industrial city with international competitiveness”, “an open and inclusive city for innovation and entrepreneurship”, “an affluent and civilized city appropriate for residence” and “a cultural city with a glorious history”). During this process, great importance should be attached to accuracy and pragmaticality.
In line with the core principles of state and provincial-level policies, these measures work from the city’s actual demands of using foreign investment. They also learn from other provinces and cities’ experiences and integrate innovations in the related policies the city launches recently. The Measures gives emphasis to deepening and expanding the policy of facilitating investment in “Action Plan for Further Optimizing Business Environment and Building Good Innovation Ecosystem” by focusing on key demands of foreign investors and foreign enterprises, including relaxing rules for foreign investment, supporting business introduction and investment selection, promoting innovation via opening up, ensuring to meet demands for land and housing, upgrading carriers and platforms and improving business environment. The Measures works on the premise of doing what the municipal government and those sectors concerned are capable of. Thus 18 specific measures are introduced to enhance foreign investors and foreign enterprises’ sense of fulfillment, to magnify incentive effect and to attract more high-quality projects, advanced technologies, high-end talents and other production factors.
3. An Overview
“The Measures” has six parts which include eighteen measures:
(1). Further widening of market access.
We will fully ensure the application of pre-establishment national treatment for foreign investment. First, the latest version of the negative list on foreign investors will be determined; the “Single Window and Single Form” system will be applied to improve the ability and efficiency of the service sector when foreign investment attempts accessibility. Second, the latest policies should be fully implemented; opening up of professional fields should be deepened; new focuses of work should be determined even by crossing boarders of different sectors.
(2). Vigorous support for introduction and selection of foreign investment
To deal with the increasingly fierce competition for attracting investment among cities, the municipal government has issued targeted supportive measures. First, in view of the current situations of the fiscal system, we will further take advantage of the policy which grants bonus funds if the set goals of foreign investment implementation can be achieved. We also encourage prefecture-level cities to launch their own incentive measures consistent with laws and regulations and offer more support to high-quality projects. Second, we appreciate foreign investors’ varied practices to increase their sources and methods of making investments, such as profits made in China, shareholder’s rights, overseas profits flowing back to China and foreign mergers.
(3). Coordination and accessibility of resources for innovation
To meet the demand of investment introduction involving all production factors, Suzhou takes the corresponding measure to quicken the pace for attracting sources of innovation. First, it is made clear that all the measures for constructing first-rate business ecosystem are also applicable for foreign-invested research and development institutions. Second, we will adopt a series of service measures to ease customs inspection on research-and-development-related supplies for foreign invested reseach and development institutions. Third, preferential policies for domestic talents are applied to foreign enterprises and foreign talents as well. Fourth, measures are introduced to offer convenience to foreign talents and employees of foreign enterprises concerning exit and entry managment, residence permit and education. Fifth, more efforts will be focused on information sharing and collaborative work in accreditation and declaration and follow-up services for foreign-invested enterprises whose headquarters are located in Jiangsu Province or the city of Suzhou.
(4). Strengthened guarantee for key project factors
These measures have taken into account the current situation of the city’s land use, labour, financing and other key project factors and the latest policies related. The measures will ensure the availability of high-quality land, provide guidance for economical and intensive use of land and estate resources. The measures also intend to help revitalize stock assets, expand land and estate supplies, faciliate enterprises’ scientific and flexible use of labor, expand labor supplies and financing channels to meet the demands of foreign investment in terms of those key factors.
(5). Optimization of carriers and platforms for investment introduction
Considering prefectures’ demands when optimizing and further developing their foreign investment carriers, policy platforms and collaboration systems, the measures provide practical support in favor of developing leading functions in these aspects. First, push innovative growth of development zones in line with the recently issued policies concerning this issue. Second, successful piolt practices in fields of opening up, innovation, cross-strait cooperation, services trade, e-commerce and customs supervision should be pushed further and expanded. Third, the construction of cross-border and cross-region cooperation mechanisms and platforms should be advanced.
(6). Construction of a better business environment
First, the protection of foreign-invested enterprises’ intellectual property rights should be strengthened. Second, the measures intend to facilitate the lowering of enterprises’ composite costs. Third, systems and mechanisms should be improved to guarantee that entities of foreign investment can be equally entitled to post-establishment national treatment. Fourth, the enterprise-targeted full-range service system should be bettered to improve enterprise-targeted services. Fifth, efforts should be made to boost specialized introduction of business investment.
In its concluding part, The Measures further mentions that it will ensure the application of the measures in five areas, namely orgnizational guarantee, enhanced publicity, atmosphere creation, effective implementation and strengthened supervision.
Suzhou Bureau of Commerce
July, 2018