In order to meet the requirements set forth in the Notice of the State Council on Issuing Several Measures for Promoting the Reform and Innovation of Trade and Investment Facilitation in Pilot Free Trade Zones, the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Accelerating the Development of New Forms and Models of Foreign Trade, and the Opinions of the General Office of the State Council on Effectively Making Cross-cyclical Adjustments to Further Stabilize Foreign Trade, to unleash the potential of new trade modes, to further enhance trade liberalization and facilitation, and to steadily push forward the development of off-shore trade in Beijing municipality, Measures of Beijing Municipality to Promote the Innovative Development of Off-shore Trade is hereby formulated.
Ⅰ. Establishing a coordination mechanism for off-shore trade
The innovative development of off-shore trade shall be included into the work scope of the task force for international business services and coordination in the "Two Zones". Efforts shall be made to enhance the overall planning of aspects such as the innovative development of off-shore trade, the construction of platforms, the provision of supporting services, the facilitation of settlement and financing, and the management of risks, and to step up coordination for key projects, prominent issues and special requests, with the focus on supporting the off-shore trade that anchors itself to the innovative development of the real economy, the improvement of the integrity of industrial and supply chains, and the elevation of the modernization level. For the differentiated and complicated demands of enterprises for special off-shore trade services, the information asymmetry when banks handle the applications for off-shore trade services, the lack of diversified financing products, and other hard nuts, the case-specific solutions shall be provided through special research and study for a continued improvement of trade facilitation.
Ⅱ. Promoting the facilitation of cross-border settlement and financing
(1) Improve the level of trade settlement facilitation for trustworthy and compliant enterprises. Banks shall be encouraged to optimize the review process of off-shore resale transactions so that the cross-border settlement in off-shore trade for those trustworthy and compliant enterprises that have real business demands can be facilitated. Off-shore trade training programs and talent policy publicity programs shall be carried out for trustworthy and compliant enterprises, with a view to improving their professional proficiency and policy awareness.
(2) Improve the capability of banks in service provision. Banks shall be encouraged to formulate business norms based on customers credit ratings and business modes so as to detail review standards, optimize review process, refine internal management and improve review efficiency. Efforts shall be made to support banks in independently deciding which types of transaction documents to be reviewed and exploring the formulation of a standardized process for the cross-border settlement in off-shore trade based on the principle of "substance over form" and the norms of service provision. Besides, efforts shall be beefed up in the training for banks to cultivate the talent team for off-shore trade, nurture professional backbones and improve service quality.
(3) Facilitate the financing in off-shore trade for enterprises. On the condition that risks are controllable, banks shall be supported in offering richer financing products to off-shore trade enterprises and providing special financing support for enterprises in off-shore trade.
(4) Establish a public information service platform. Efforts shall be made to support the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone in building up a public information service platform for the background verification of off-shore trade transactions, and to gradually provide data such as sea or air freight logistics information, manifest information of international logistics, data related to port handling, customs data, basic information of enterprises, and credit ratings of enterprises, with the aim to provide data support for banks to review transport documents and conduct due diligence, and help banks identify the authenticity, rationality and logicality of off-shore trade transactions.
Ⅲ. Refining regulatory and guaranteeing measures
(1) Put in place a flexible and accurate panel-discussion and review mechanism. The real and legal special demands of enterprises for off-shore trade services shall be jointly discussed by the task force for international business coordination in the "Two Zones". In accordance with the principle of "encouraging innovation and forestalling risks", individual cases shall be analyzed and case-specific solutions shall be discussed and reviewed to address the requests of enterprises and explore new ways of verifying the authenticity of off-shore trade transactions.
(2) Refine the statistical system for off-shore trade. Based on the public information service platform, steps shall be taken to add and integrate data resources, promote data sharing and build up a statistical analysis system for off-shore trade to provide references for decision making.
Ⅳ. Reinforcing the guarantee for the factors of off-shore trade
(1) Scale up the fiscal support. Efforts shall be made to utilize the special funds for the development of foreign trade in a coordinated manner and optimize the structure of fiscal expenditure. Rewards shall be given to the enterprises that carry out off-shore trade with the vision of promoting the innovation of the real economy, improving the integrity of industrial and supply chains and elevating the level of modernization. Districts with adequate fiscal budget shall be encouraged to grant special rewards to those off-shore trade enterprises that get registered and operate in the districts.
(2) Ensure the implementation of preferential tax policies. Enterprises with a large amount of real off-shore trade transactions shall be supported in applying for being recognized as technology-advanced service enterprises in accordance with relevant regulations and enjoying relevant preferential tax policies.
(3) Step up the introduction of talent in trade. High-end talent in trade shall be included into the eligible group for the recognition and introduction of urgently-needed talent. The eligible talent in trade with the recommendation of relevant municipal departments can apply for registered permanent residence in Beijing.
Ⅴ. Promoting the innovative development of off-shore trade
(1) Set up a cluster for the innovative development of off-shore trade. Support shall be given to the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone in revolving around the industrial chain of off-shore trade to provide off-shore trade enterprises with complete and high-quality supporting services and pro-innovation policy support, with a view to bringing together a group of large enterprises that maintain relatively close economic and trade ties with overseas markets, a group of banks and other financial institutions that have advanced experience in cross-border settlement, and a group of institutions that provide supporting services related to off-shore trade. In addition, the off-shore trade of energy, metals and other commodities shall be supported.
(2) Support the China (Beijing) Pilot Free Trade Zone in establishing an off-shore trade service center. Services such as policy consultation, coordination of special requests, professional training, and financial and legal services shall be provided for enterprises, and data support shall be provided for banks.
(3) Support the development of the headquarters of off-shore trade enterprises. The eligible foreign-invested enterprises dedicated to off-shore trade shall be encouraged to apply for being recognized as the regional headquarters of multinational companies. Other eligible off-shore trade enterprises shall be encouraged to be included into the list of demonstration headquarters enterprises of the industry for management. In addition, relevant supporting policies shall be rolled out to support off-shore trade headquarters enterprises in accordance with relevant regulations.
Ⅵ. Enhancing the risk forestalling for off-shore trade
Comprehensive monitoring and management shall be implemented, and the coordination among departments such as the Beijing Municipal Commerce Bureau, the Operations Office (Beijing) of the People's Bank of China, the Beijing Foreign Exchange Management Department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and the Beijing Municipal Tax Service shall be strengthened. Meanwhile, efforts shall be made to improve the capabilities of cross-departmental joint monitoring, enrich the regulatory approaches for off-shore trade, and forestall risks by preventing deviant behavior such as faking or fabricating transactions, and getting financed by cheating.