The State Council recently approved the "Comprehensive Pilot Work Plan for Accelerating the Expansion and Opening up of the Service Industry". What is the significance of the plan being introduced? What benefits will the new measures bring to corporate investment and people's lives? The State Council Information Office held a press conference on the 21st to respond to external concerns. Against the backdrop of intensifying global unilateralism and protectionism, China is accelerating the pilot program of expanding the opening up of the service industry, orderly expanding independent and unilateral opening up, which is a practical action for us to do our own thing well and inject more certainty and stability into the world Ling Ji, Deputy Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative for International Trade Negotiations, said. Ling Ji introduced that since 2015, the State Council has approved pilot projects in 11 provinces and cities including Beijing in three batches, continuously relaxing market access barriers. Over the past 10 years, the pilot program has undergone one upgrade and two expansions, and has launched 7 rounds of 15 pilot programs. At present, a pattern of "1+4+6" has been formed - "1" refers to Beijing, which is a demonstration zone for expanding the opening up of the service industry. '4' refers to Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan, and Chongqing. '6' refers to Shenyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, and Chengdu. In addition to adding pilot tasks, this work plan also includes 9 new pilot cities, namely Dalian, Ningbo, Xiamen, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Hefei, Fuzhou, Xi'an, and Suzhou. Together with the first 11 pilot provinces and cities, it covers the eastern, central, western, and northeastern regions of China, forming a regional representative pattern of China's current service industry opening up to the outside world. 'Speed up and increase power' is the key word of this work plan. Ling Ji said that in order to accelerate the formation of more diverse institutional innovation achievements and further improve the efficiency of the pilot project, the pilot task will be fully implemented in eligible areas, without distinguishing regions and task batches, but will be fully implemented in all 11 provinces and cities in the pilot project at once. Specifically, the work plan focuses on the opening up of key service areas, innovative development of industries, institutional construction, risk prevention and control, and proposes 155 pilot tasks. Among them, "supporting the open development of telecommunications services and related digital industries" is given top priority. The pilot tasks include: canceling the restrictions on the proportion of foreign shares in service businesses such as app stores and Internet access; Encourage the development of the data annotation industry, improve the data trading market system, and support the development of new formats and models such as "data processing"; Develop overseas gaming business and lay out the entire industry chain layout from IP creation to game production, distribution, and overseas operations. Xie Cun, Director of the Information and Communication Development Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, introduced that in 2024, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, together with relevant departments, issued a notice clarifying the cancellation of foreign shareholding restrictions on multiple value-added telecommunications services in Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, and Hainan, which has received widespread attention and positive evaluation at home and abroad. Not long ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued pilot approvals to 13 globally renowned enterprises. Next, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology will support more foreign-funded enterprises to participate in pilot projects, explore more new formats and new driving forces, and stimulate market vitality. The purpose of expanding the pilot program of opening up in the medical field is to introduce high-quality medical resources, which has attracted widespread attention from the outside world. Jiao Yahui, Director of the Medical Administration Department of the National Health Commission, introduced that the new pilot tasks in the medical field include supporting qualified foreign and Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan doctors to open clinics in the local area, supporting overseas medical professionals such as doctors, nurses, and pharmacists to work locally for a short period of time in accordance with regulations, and simplifying and optimizing the approval process; On the basis of ensuring data security and patient privacy, we can explore the co construction and sharing of health and medical databases, and strengthen the standardization of clinical medical data and inter hospital sharing tasks. Jiao Yahui said that since the launch and implementation of the comprehensive pilot work for expanding the opening up of the service industry, China has introduced a series of policy measures in developing foreign-funded medical institutions and introducing overseas medical personnel, and has achieved positive results. According to statistics, there are currently over 150 joint venture and sole proprietorship medical institutions; There are over 1500 overseas medical personnel practicing in China for a short period of time. The institutional opening-up of China's financial industry is steadily expanding, and the work plan has made special arrangements for the financial sector. The pilot tasks in the financial sector include: supporting the exploration and development of international factoring business; Supporting multinational corporations to conduct cross-border fund concentration operations in RMB; Deepen the pilot program for Qualified Foreign Limited Partners (QFLP); Attract overseas insurance companies, sovereign funds, pension funds, ESG funds, and certification agencies to provide investment, financing, and technical services for green projects. When talking about these measures, Wang Xin, Director of the Research Bureau of the People's Bank of China, summarized that first, we should constantly improve the degree of trade investment and financing facilitation; Secondly, promote the pilot implementation of technology finance measures; Thirdly, support the high-quality development of green finance and transformational finance; The fourth is to closely integrate with national strategies and increase financial support for regional coordinated development. Next, the People's Bank of China will coordinate financial openness and security, conscientiously carry out cross-border trade and investment and financing facilitation related work, and promote high-quality development of the financial services industry. Zhu Bing, Director General of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the comprehensive pilot work of expanding the opening up of the service industry has played an increasingly prominent role in "testing the system for the country and seeking development for the local area". The first three batches of pilot demonstrations have launched 12 open measures in industries such as technology, finance, culture, telecommunications, and education, cultivating various new formats and models such as large-scale equipment and transportation financing leasing, and intellectual property pledge financing. In 2024, the service industry in 11 provinces and cities will absorb 293.2 billion yuan of foreign investment, accounting for about half of the total foreign investment in the national service industry. As of now, more than 190 innovative achievements have been promoted nationwide through 9 batches of pilot demonstrations. (New Society)