On January 11，General Offices of the Ministry of Commerce and other 13 departments issued a circular on selected regions to carry out pilot programs for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. The nine selected regions are: Beijing Municipality, Shangshai Municipality, Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province (including Ningbo City), Fujian Province (including Xiamen City), Hunan Province, Guangdong Province (including Shenzhen City), Chongqing Municipality, and Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region.

The circular required that the competent departments of commerce in the pilot areas take the lead in establishing a connection mechanism with relevant units to strengthen organization and coordination and optimize the pilot work plan. Efforts should be made to improve the institutional mechanism, and enhance the ability and optimize the environment for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. Clear objectives, tasks, and division of responsibilities for the pilot work should be identified; supportive polices and measures should be set in details; and, schedules and roadmaps should be formulated. The circular stressed the need to ensure the pilot work is carried out fully and effectively.

Hunan Province will rely on key opening-up platforms such as the China (Hunan) Pilot Free Trade Zone to leverage their advantages in institutional innovation, explore new scenarios applied in the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, and build new forms of trade, consumption, and logistics, according to the Hunan Pilot Free Trade Zone Office of the Hunan Provincial Department of Commerce. A number of enterprises, demonstration bases, and platforms will be fostered to carry out the pilot programs for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. Special exhibitions on the integration of domestic and foreign trade are expected to be held to gain experience that can be repeated and promoted. 

Hunan will strive to, in three to five years, build a pioneering area for promoting the effective connection of domestic and foreign trade institutions and integrating into the domestic and international circulations in inland regions and a demonstration area for the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade in central and western China.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.

Translator: Xiao Juan

Chinese source: hunan.gov.cn