Chang Zhipeng

57589527@qq.com

FORTY-THREE reform and institutional innovation practices by the Qianhai & Shekou Area of China (Guangdong) Pilot Free Trade Zone will be duplicated and promoted citywide, according to a recent notice issued by the city government.

The practices involve investment facilitation, trade facilitation, financial innovation, pre- and post-event regulation, rule of law innovations and institutional innovations.

Qianhai has adopted 10 measures, including a simplified business registration procedure and one-stop registration, to facilitate investment. Previously, Qianhai simplified business registration by combining multiple certificates into one. Now, business registration in Qianhai has been further simplified by combining 30 certificates into one. Market information will be shared among different government agencies and various industries to avoid the repetitive collection of information.

Five measures in trade facilitation will be promoted across Shenzhen. An outbound airport service center has been built within a restricted area of Shenzhen Customs. The service center offers integrated services regarding air cargo collection, distribution, diversion and transportation, allowing enterprises to complete exporting formalities within the customs’ restricted area before loading exported goods onto cargo planes.

The cross-border RMB settlement for financial leasing assets, the Internet insurance big data risk control platform and the parallel fund assisting cross-border mergers and acquisitions are among the 16 financial innovation measures to be promoted. A measure involving parallel funds assisting cross-border mergers and acquisitions helps mainland enterprises conduct cross-border mergers and acquisitions for overseas companies while addressing the problems of complex transaction structures, long waiting times for approval and huge fund demands by adopting domestic and foreign RMB or U.S. dollar parallel funds. Thus, the fund investors can benefit from the equity appreciation brought by the rapid growth of firms, and achieve a win-win situation for multiple parties.

The seven measures regarding rule of law innovations, especially cross-border notary legal services, serve enterprises that want to explore the global market and participate in the Belt and Road Initiative by improving notary legal services, expanding the content of foreign-related notary legal services and innovating foreign-related notarization businesses.

Additionally, two practices regarding market supervision and three institutional innovations will also be promoted across the city. For example, Qianhai has released a smart-parking guideline on the management of car parks in urban areas, which offers guidance on the planning and design, development and construction, and operation and management of parking lots. Under the guideline, underground parking lots are interconnected and operated in an intelligent network.