Strive to achieve stable opening of the door in the field of commerce, and work high-quality development - visit to Wang Wentao, Minister of Commerce

Xinhua News Agency, shi eel ke, compiled

Beijing, 27 Dec (Xinhua) -- Striving to Achieve "Steady Opening of doors" in the Commercial Sector and Making Efforts in High-Quality Development -- Interview with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao

Xinhua News Agency reporter Yu Jiaxin

When deploying the economic work in 2022, the Central Economic Work Conference stressed that it is necessary to "take the lead in steady words and seek progress in stability", and proposed to "promote deep-level reform and promote high-quality development with a high level of opening up".

How will business work exert its strength on the word "stability" next year? What are the new ways to promote consumption, stabilize foreign trade and stabilize foreign investment? How to better benchmark high standards of international economic and trade rules? Wang Wentao, minister of commerce, was interviewed by a Xinhua reporter.

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Focus on doing a good job in "four stability" and "five further"

Since the beginning of this year, the business operation has been better than expected, and the high-quality development has achieved positive results, achieving a good start in the "14th Five-Year Plan". Wang Wentao pointed out that the triple pressure of demand contraction, supply shock and expected weakening next year will be more obvious in the business field.

"From the perspective of the commercial field, we must do everything possible to stabilize the momentum of consumption recovery, stabilize the basic plate of foreign trade and foreign investment, and stabilize the contribution to the national economy." He said.

Speaking of "stability," Wang Wentao stressed that it is necessary to focus on doing a good job in the "four stability" --

Stabilize policies, maintain the continuity and stability of relevant policies, pay close attention to promoting the introduction of new policies and measures that meet the requirements of cross-cycle and counter-cyclical adjustment, and appropriately focus on the front;

Stabilize the main body, focus on the "urgent difficulties and expectations" of market entities, especially small and medium-sized and micro enterprises, and increase the rescue and support of stable enterprises in a targeted manner;

Stabilize the market, maintain the smooth operation of the domestic consumer market, consolidate and expand the international market, and promote the coordinated development of the domestic and foreign demand markets;

Stabilize the supply chain, strive to alleviate the tension of international transportation capacity, break through the blockages and difficulties, and maintain the smooth flow of the global industrial chain supply chain.

In terms of "advancement," Wang Wentao pointed out that the focus is on making efforts in high-quality development and doing a good job in the "five further steps," that is, further accelerating consumption upgrading and releasing consumption potential; further promoting the innovative development of foreign trade and enhancing the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade; further enhancing the level of two-way investment, expanding investment cooperation in the fields of science and technology, digital, and green; further deepening multilateral and bilateral economic and trade relations and creating a favorable external environment; further coordinating development and security, accurately identifying and predicting, and properly preventing and resolving various risks and challenges.

Wang Wentao said that the Ministry of Commerce will firmly implement the strategy of expanding domestic demand, enhance the endogenous driving force for development, and promote deep-level reform and promote high-quality development with a high level of opening up.

Stimulate the vitality of consumption and launch more new and practical moves

At present, the global epidemic has fluctuated repeatedly, the domestic epidemic situation has been sporadic, the residents' consumption expectations are unstable and their confidence is insufficient, and the potential and motivation of China's consumption growth have not yet been fully released.

Wang Wentao said that next year, it is necessary to innovate ways, open up ideas, launch more new and practical moves, enhance consumer confidence, and stimulate consumer vitality. At the same time, it is necessary to implement the requirements of promoting common prosperity, make up for the shortcomings of urban and rural circulation, cultivate new formats and models of consumption, and promote consumption upgrading.

The first is to improve the county-level commercial system. Continue to implement the "County Commercial Construction Action", promote the construction and transformation of county comprehensive commercial and trade service centers and logistics distribution centers, transform and upgrade township commercial outlets and village-level convenience stores, develop common distribution, expand the coverage of rural e-commerce, and promote the double improvement of farmers' income and rural consumption.

The second is to build a circle of convenient living for the people in a quarter of an hour. Promote large-scale enterprises to sink communities, develop brand chain convenience stores, and accelerate the standardization of community vegetable markets and fresh stores.

The third is to enhance the city's commercial energy level. Accelerate the cultivation and construction of international consumption center cities, promote the transformation and upgrading of pedestrian streets with high quality, coordinate the demonstration and creation of smart business districts and smart stores, and better play the leading role of demonstration and leadership in consumption upgrading and consumption promotion.

Fourth, while doing a good job in epidemic prevention and control, we will organize and carry out a series of consumption promotion activities throughout the year to enhance market expectations and boost consumer confidence.

Four aspects to stabilize foreign trade

Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign trade has achieved rapid growth, and the total import and export volume in the first 11 months has increased by 22% year-on-year, but the uncertainties and unstable factors facing foreign trade next year will increase.

Wang Wentao analyzed that the recovery momentum of international demand has slowed down, the return of orders, the export of "home economy" products and other phased factors have weakened, the price of raw materials encountered by foreign trade enterprises has risen, the transportation capacity is tight, the freight rate is high, and the difficulties such as labor costs have not been completely alleviated. "In the face of these risks and challenges, coupled with the high foreign trade base in 2021, the pressure to stabilize foreign trade in 2022 is not small."

In order to strengthen cross-cycle adjustment and take multiple measures to stabilize foreign trade, the Ministry of Commerce will focus on four aspects of work -

Implement a stable foreign trade policy. The Ministry of Commerce will work with all localities and relevant departments to implement the relevant deployment of stabilizing foreign trade, guide all localities to introduce supporting measures according to local conditions, and guide enterprises to make full use of them.

Promote the innovative development of foreign trade. Wang Wentao stressed that under the new situation, it is necessary to put the innovation and development of foreign trade in a more prominent position, further promote scientific and technological innovation, institutional innovation, model and business format innovation, and accelerate the cultivation of new advantages in participating in international cooperation and competition. To this end, the Ministry of Commerce will do a good job in expanding the new batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive test areas. Innovative development of offshore trade. Efforts will be made to improve the level of trade digitalization and promote the development of green trade.

Ensure the stability and smoothness of the industrial chain supply chain. Support foreign trade enterprises to strengthen the connection of the industrial chain supply chain and promote the stable development of processing trade. Cultivate various platforms such as foreign trade transformation and upgrading bases and national import trade promotion and innovation demonstration zones. Alleviate the international logistics pressure of foreign trade enterprises and continue to promote smooth settlement.

Help foreign trade enterprises to open up the market. The Ministry of Commerce will make good use of the signed free trade agreement to guide foreign trade enterprises to accurately explore the international market. Better play the role of important exhibitions and open platforms such as the Expo, the Canton Fair, the Service Trade Fair, and the Circumference, promote the communication between the internal and external markets, and smooth the domestic and international double circulation.

Increase efforts to attract foreign investment, stabilize the total amount, optimize the structure and improve the quality

In the first 11 months of this year, China's absorption of foreign investment exceeded 1 trillion yuan for the first time, which has exceeded the level of last year and continues to become a hot spot for foreign investment.

Wang Wentao said that the Ministry of Commerce will further expand opening up, optimize the business environment, focus on stabilizing the total amount, optimizing the structure, improving the quality, and more actively and effectively utilizing foreign capital.

The first is to promote the opening of the door "wider and wider". Grasp the implementation of the negative list of foreign investment access in the whole country and the pilot free trade zone, and supervise and accelerate the progress of "reform and abolition" of relevant laws and regulations. Revise the Catalogue of Encouraged Foreign Investment Industries, include more emerging fields such as green, low-carbon, digital economy, and more advantageous industries in the central and western regions into the catalogue, and expand the scope of encouraged foreign investment.

The second is to promote the "better and better" of open platforms. Give full play to the role of 21 pilot free trade zones and Hainan free trade ports, 230 state-level economic and technological development zones, and open platforms and investment introduction platforms such as comprehensive demonstration zones and pilot areas for the expansion and opening up of the service industry, and attract more foreign-funded projects to land.

The third is to promote the business environment to "get better and better". Comprehensively clean up provisions that are inconsistent with the Foreign Investment Law and its implementing regulations, and implement fair treatment for foreign-funded enterprises. Give full play to the role of the complaint work mechanism of foreign-funded enterprises, and increase the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment.

The fourth is to promote service guarantees "getting stronger and stronger". Improve and make good use of mechanisms such as the coordination mechanism for foreign trade and foreign investment, special classes for the work of key foreign-funded projects, focus on coordinating and solving problems such as the difficulty of entry of personnel that foreign-funded enterprises are most concerned about at present, and increase the strength of guarantees for the elements of key foreign-funded projects. Continue to carry out the series of activities of "Entering the Local Areas of the Expo" to support local governments, especially in the central and western provinces, to attract investment and investment.

Benchmark high standards of international economic and trade rules Build a high standard free trade zone network

Implementing the requirements of the Central Economic Work Conference, how will the Ministry of Commerce set high standards for international economic and trade rules in the future and promote deep-level reform with high-level opening-up?

"In the next step, we will accelerate the construction of a high-standard free trade zone network for the world." Wang Wentao said that including the high-quality implementation of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP), continue to improve the ability of localities, industries and enterprises to make good use of the agreement, and work with member countries to deepen the construction of the RCEP mechanism. In addition, we will do a good job in joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement (DEPA).

In terms of actively docking high-standard international economic and trade rules, the Ministry of Commerce will promote the introduction of a negative list of cross-border service trade in the pilot free trade zone as soon as possible, support the conditional pilot free trade zone and free trade port to carry out the first trial of international high-level free trade agreement rules docking, and increase the intensity of opening up stress tests.

Wang Wentao also said that China will firmly safeguard the multilateral trading system, continue to participate constructively in the reform and negotiation of the WTO, work with all parties to strengthen international anti-epidemic cooperation, promote progress in agriculture, appellate body reform, e-commerce and other issues, and firmly safeguard the status of the main channel for the formulation of international rules in the multilateral trading system.