According to the Leading Group Office for Development of the "Two Zones", as of August 1, 198 out of 251 tasks outlined in the official reply of the State Council to build the Integrated National Demonstration Zone for Opening up the Service Sector and China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone (hereinafter referred to as the "Two Zones") have been implemented, with a rate of 78.9 percent.

Among the 198 tasks, many are pioneering and first-approved policies such as "approval upon record filing" for high-tech enterprises, preferential income tax benefits for corporate-type venture capital enterprises and technology transfer, private equity share transfer platform, pilot cash-pooling service for multinational corporations to integrate domestic and foreign currency management, etc. The "Two Zones" development takes institutional innovation as its core mission and integrates the opening-up of industrial parks and industries. Centering on nine fields, including technology, finance, digital economy, business affairs, etc., development of the "Two Zones" will practice list-based management and project-based promotion for all tasks. In the past year, it has seen continued progress in pioneering policies and formation of a paradigm of high-level opening-up.

The year 2021 marks the start of the "14th Five-year Plan" period. The development of the "Two Zones" will be focused on the aspects of policies, projects and mechanisms, accelerate exploration of opening-up in the entire industrial chain, including science and technology innovation, digital economy, green finance, biomedicine, etc., and advance reforms in all links including talent introduction, intellectual property, etc. An overseas style environment will be built in key industrial parks and systemic reform will be planned to achieve strategic and systemic arrangements in institutional innovation.

(Source: Beijing News)