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"Opening-up leads to the path of
prosperity," explained Zhang Jian, a deputy to the 13th National
People's Congress (NPC), in an interview with China.org.cn on March 6. "As
we enter a new stage of development, we will follow a new development
philosophy and give full play to opening-up to foster a new development
paradigm with domestic circulation as the mainstay and domestic and
international circulations reinforcing each other," said Zhang, who is
also head of the Anhui provincial bureau of commerce. Over
the past year, the size of the open economy of China's eastern Anhui
province grew substantially. In 2020, the province's total volume of
exports and imports reached $78 billion, an increase of 13.6%, ranking
sixth nationwide in terms of economic growth. From
last September when the China (Anhui) Pilot Free Trade Zone (FTZ) was
officially inaugurated to the end of January this year, over 3,400 new
firms have been set up and 362 projects have been signed and established
in the zone, with contracted investment reaching nearly 300 billion
yuan. In order to give full play to
the role of pilot FTZs in driving a new round of reform and opening-up,
Zhang has submitted a proposal to the ongoing fourth session of the 13th
NPC on strengthening the coordinated development of the pilot FTZs in
the Yangtze River Delta region. He
supports the establishment of a coordinated working mechanism among the
FTZs in the region to enable industries to develop in concert and
facilitate the flow of factors of production. "Promoting
the integrated development of the Yangtze River Delta region and
enabling FTZs to complement each other with their respective strengths
will help foster greater synergy of opening-up," he said. Speaking
of the objectives and tasks Anhui province will take to promote a
higher level of opening-up during the 14th Five-Year Plan period
(2021-2025), Zhang highlighted further opening-up of markets and
industries. According to Zhang, Anhui
will strengthen regional cooperation and serve major national
strategies including the integrated development of the Yangtze River
Delta. Meanwhile, efforts will be made to build the province into a
magnet for foreign investment in advanced manufacturing and modern
service industries and to pursue the high-quality development of trade. He
added that the province will accelerate the expansion of international
markets and support the growth of new forms and models of business such
as cross-border e-commerce, market procurement, digital trade and
service trade. "We will work hard to
achieve our goals of attracting more than $20 billion in foreign direct
investment and reaching over $100 billion in imports and exports by the
end of the 14th Five-Year Plan period," Zhang said. He
added that the province will align its policies with high-level
international trade rules, as well as explore new working methods in
areas such as the application of scientific and technological
achievements, the development of the entire industry chain of
advantageous industries, and the opening of the financial sector and new
trade models.
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