Several Measures to Promote Steady Growth, Optimized Structure, and High-Quality Development of Foreign Trade and Investment

I. Drafting Background and Process

To thoroughly implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, fully implement the "Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Promoting the Stable Scale and Optimized Structure of Foreign Trade" (Guobanfa [2023] No. 10), stabilize the basic盘of foreign trade and investment in the province, and promote high-quality development of foreign economy and trade, foreign trade and investment high-quality development promotion policies are proposed. After being signed by relevant provincial departments (units), the fairness competition review and legality review were completed, and the "Several Measures" were formed.

II. Main Content and Innovations

26 measures are proposed to promote foreign trade, utilize foreign investment, and optimize the business environment with greater efforts.

(I) Greater Efforts to Promote Foreign Trade Stabilization and Quality Improvement

1. Focus on expanding the export scale of key products and key markets. Organize the "new three items" products to explore the international market, promote the establishment of international marketing channels for advantageous industries such as automobile complete vehicles and rubber tires, and expand the scale of used car exports.

2. Accelerate the import of bulk commodities and advanced technological equipment. Build an international mineral product bonded mixing and distribution center, expand the import scale of bonded mixed mineral products, and increase the intensity of interest subsidies for the import of key technologies, important equipment, and components.

3. Fully support enterprises in expanding markets and stabilizing market share. Implement the overseas "Hundred Exhibitions" market development plan, and provide an 80% subsidy for the booth fees of key exhibitions included in the "Hundred Exhibitions" plan.

4. Develop and strengthen trade entities. Promote diversified tax guarantee methods, and encourage more enterprises to become "Authorized Economic Operators" (AEO) of the customs.

5. Continuously promote the innovative and healthy development of cross-border e-commerce. Incubate a batch of new cross-border e-commerce enterprises, implement tax refunds with invoices and tax exemptions without invoices for eligible cross-border e-commerce retail export enterprises in comprehensive pilot zones, and implement presumptive taxation of corporate income tax at a 4% taxable income rate.

6. Accelerate the digitalization of trade and the development of green trade. Identify a number of provincial-level digital service export bases, and increase the allocation of green electricity resources to key foreign trade enterprises.

7. Enhance the policy effect of the departure port tax refund pilot program. Open up information interconnection channels between the departure port and the port of exit, integrate resources such as routes, finance, and trade, promote the enjoyment of benefits by enterprises under the departure port tax refund policy, and expand export scale.

8. Increase the intensity of import and export credit lending. Establish a directory of key enterprises importing from Africa and RCEP member countries, and expand imports of key materials such as food, energy, and resources, advanced technologies, and major equipment. Implement the "commerce + finance" policy, and financial institutions will provide credit to the province's commercial enterprises with a scale of no less than 460 billion yuan.

9. Better utilize the role of export credit insurance. Expand the coverage of small and micro enterprises, and the number of small and micro enterprises with effective "single window" insurance coverage should be no less than 18,000.

10. Optimize cross-border settlement services for foreign trade. Develop a list of potential "first-time clients" for cross-border RMB business, and expand the scale of first-time clients for exchange rate hedging.

(II) Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment

11. Deepen investment promotion activities. Hold high-level events such as the Qingdao Summit of Transnational Corporation Leaders, the Confucian Businessmen Conference, the Hong Kong and Macao Shandong Week, and the Shandong-Transnational Corporation Cooperation Roundtable, actively connect with foreign business institutions, chambers of commerce, and industry associations in China, and provide project investment information matching services for various cities. The number of visits and personnel for key park staff to go abroad for business trips to perform investment promotion and other economic and trade tasks will be arranged according to actual work needs.

12. Deepen investment cooperation with key countries and regions. Focus on high-end equipment, green energy, and other fields, and continue to expand cooperation with developed economies such as Japan, South Korea, Europe, and the United States. Deepen the mechanism-based cooperation such as the Singapore-Shandong Economic and Trade Council.

13. Improve the level of attracting foreign investment in manufacturing. Focusing on 11 iconic industrial chains such as new generation information technology and high-end chemicals, introduce a batch of foreign investment projects that supplement, extend, and strengthen the industrial chain in manufacturing. Support various cities in deepening cooperation with central enterprises and introducing a batch of high-quality foreign investment projects; encourage all levels of state-owned enterprises to conduct overseas mergers and acquisitions and overseas financing to return for development.

14. Further expand the areas of attracting foreign investment. Accelerate the pilot program for qualified foreign limited partners (QFLP), and support the use of the raised offshore RMB to directly conduct relevant domestic investments. Encourage government-guided funds to participate in the establishment of QFLP funds in a market-oriented manner, and support foreign investment in establishing research and development centers.

15. Give full play to the role of development zones as the main platform for utilizing foreign investment. Deepen the reform of development zone management systems, and promote more large foreign investment projects to settle in the area around the leading industries. Give full play to the role of platforms such as the Shandong Pilot Free Trade Zone, the SCO Demonstration Zone, the Jinan New and Old Kinetic Energy Conversion Starting Area, the Qingdao West Coast New Area, and the Jinan-Qingdao-Yantai International Investment Promotion Industrial Park, and increase efforts to attract foreign investment in key industries.

16. Strengthen the coordination of key foreign investment projects. Establish a supervision and dispatch mechanism for major foreign investment projects, implement the "Secretary and Mayor Project Engineering," implement the main responsibility of various cities for major foreign investment projects, and strengthen the overall coordination of foreign investment attraction.

17. Strengthen the element guarantee for foreign investment projects. Key foreign investment projects can apply for the use of provincial-level reserved energy consumption indicators according to regulations, and those that need to increase the newly constructed land area will be uniformly arranged by the provincial level for land indicators, and the total amount of pollutant emissions within the city will be coordinated.

18. Increase financial and tax support for foreign investment. For newly established projects with annual foreign investment inflow exceeding US$50 million and increased investment projects with annual foreign investment inflow exceeding US$30 million, the provincial finance will provide support at a rate of 2% of the actual expenditure of the foreign investment inflow, and the city where the project is located will provide support at a rate of no less than 1% of the actual expenditure of the foreign investment inflow, with a maximum of no more than 100 million yuan.

19. Strengthen financial policy support for foreign investment. Support eligible foreign-invested enterprises to obtain financing through listing on the main board, STAR Market, ChiNext, listing on the basic layer and innovation layer of the NEEQ, and issuing corporate credit bonds.

20. Strengthen the construction of the investment promotion team. Support various cities in implementing a more flexible salary system for the employed personnel of investment promotion departments and teams.

(III) Greater Efforts to Optimize the Business Environment

21. Build a collaborative mechanism among customs, land, ports, railways, zones (free trade zones, bonded zones, customs special supervision zones), and enterprises. Promote data interconnection among customs, land, ports, railways, zones (free trade zones, bonded zones, customs special supervision zones), and enterprises, and build a data sharing platform for the development of logistics in the Yellow River Basin with "one-click, one-stop, and full-process" services.

22. Properly address unreasonable trade restrictions. Timely release early warning information on trade frictions to enterprises, strengthen guidance and training on litigation for involved enterprises, and provide support for enterprise litigation.

23. Optimize supporting services for international exchanges. Fully implement the "one-stop acceptance and parallel approval" for foreigners' work applications in China, and provide convenience for residence and stay for senior executives of foreign-invested enterprises and foreign technical personnel and their families.

24. Create a good development environment for international talents. Carry out pilot programs for the recognition of overseas professional qualifications in the free trade zone.

25. Improve the efficiency of government services for enterprises. Promote the trial implementation of the commitment system for environmental impact assessment approval of projects, reducing the processing time for enterprises to apply for a pollution discharge permit for the first time from 30 working days to 20 working days, and reducing the proportion and frequency of spot checks on foreign-invested enterprises with low credit risk.

26. Strengthen the protection of foreign investment rights and interests. Ensure that foreign-invested enterprises enjoy equal treatment in intellectual property protection, standard setting, government procurement, and bidding. Source: Shandong Provincial Department of Commerce