China will introduce a negative list for cross-border trade in services by the end of this year in order to promote the institutional opening-up in the services sector, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MoC).
China has seen robust services demand and relatively rapid services imports, said MoC official Xian Guoyi.
China will continue to open the services sector to the outside world, import more high-quality services, actively expand service exports, encourage high-quality services to go global and enhance the international competitiveness of China’s services, Xian said.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has led to sharp declines in the services trade in many countries since March this year, it has also created new opportunities for digital trade, new service consumption patterns and stimulated new drivers of growth for consumption upgrade, he added.
The MoC will coordinate epidemic prevention and control with the development of trade in services, seize the opportunity to develop the digital services trade and integrate services with the manufacturing industry, deepen the opening-up of the service sector and promote the high-quality development of the country’s trade in services.
Boao medical tourism pilot zone
The Hainan provincial government recently announced a reform plan to promote system integration innovation at the Boao Lecheng International Medical Tourism Pilot Zone, the only one of its kind in China that enjoys special preferential policies such as special permission to import medical technology, medical equipment and medicines.
Established in 2013, the Boao pilot zone aimed to pilot the development of international medical tourism-related businesses and services, such as licensed medical treatment, cancer prevention and treatment, health management, care and rehabilitation and anti-aging medicines.
Also known as Boao Hope City, the pilot zone was the first of the 11 key industrial parks to receive such a plan in the Hainan Free Trade Port, which covers the whole of Hainan Island, about 32 times the size of Hong Kong.
The 11 parks were designed to highlight three major fields, tourism, modern services and advanced technologies, and play a leading role in the construction of the Hainan free trade port.
Market liquidity
China’s central bank on Friday continued to pump cash into the banking system via reverse repos to maintain liquidity.
The People’s Bank of China (PBoC) injected 100 billion yuan (US$14.63 billion) into the market through seven-day reverse repos at an interest rate of 2.2%, according to a statement on the website of the central bank.
The move was intended to maintain reasonable and ample liquidity in the banking system, the PBoC said. A total of 100 billion yuan of reverse repos matured Friday.
Company news
Asia’s biggest refiner, China Petroleum and Chemical Corp (Sinopec), is stepping up efforts to enhance its overseas refining capacity through international refining and chemical joint ventures.
The Amur Gas Chemical Complex, an integrated polyethylene and polypropylene production facility jointly developed by Sinopec and Russian petrochemical company Sibur, began construction on August 27, Sinopec said.
The plant, the largest chemical cooperation project between China and Russia, has a designed annual capacity of 2.3 million metric tons of polyethylene and 400,000 tons of polypropylene. It is expected to begin operations in 2025, with most of its products to be sold in the Chinese market.
The stories were written by Xu Jiangshan and first published at ATimesCN.com. They were translated by Nadeem Xu.