All Roads Lead to China: Business News, Analysis, and Insights from China

Further to my post , I was forwarded the full text of the New Binhai Plan and thought it would be of interest.

Suggestion of the State Council of the People’s Republic of China on the Related Issues of Promoting the Development and Opening –up of Tianjin Binhai New Area

Promoting the development and opening-up of Tianjin Binhai New Area (TBNA) is an important strategic arrangement made by the Central Committee of the CPC and the State Council, based on the overall situation of China’s economic and social development at the new stage of the new century. In order to better advance the development and opening-up of the TBNA, hereby the following suggestions about the related issues are made.

The Great Significance of the Development and Opening-up of the TBNA

With a planning area of 2,270km², the TBNA comprises such three administrative districts as Tanggu District, Hangu District and Dagang District and such three function zones as Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, Tianjin Port Free Trade Zone and Tianjin Port as well as parts of Dongli District and Jinnan District. After over a decade of development and construction, the TBNA has equipped itself with conditions and foundations for further accelerated development.

Promoting the development and opening-up of the TBNA will be beneficial for strengthening the international competitiveness of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as well as the circum-Bohai region. Located in the center of the circum-Bohai region, the TBNA is the gateway to China’s vast hinterland and boasts outstanding geographic advantages, profound industrial foundation, and great potential for growth. The TBNA is an important window for China’s participation in economic globalization and regional economic integration. Promoting the development and opening-up of the TBNA and expediting her development may effectively raise the level of opening-up of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and the circum-Bohai region and help her to better integrate herself into international economy, display her potential capacities, and enhance her competitiveness.

Promoting the development and opening-up of the TBNA will be favorable for implementing the overall strategy of coordinated development among regions nationwide. After more than a decade of development, the TBNA has kept strengthening her comprehensive strength and further improved her service functions, becoming another new engine for regional economic growth after Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Pudong New Area. The development and opening-up of the TBNA will be helpful for China’s eastern region to take the lead in attaining modernization so as to give impetus to the development of central and western regions, the three northern regions (China’s northeast, central north and northwest) in particular, forming a coordinated regional development pattern in which the eastern, central and western regions can better interact, complement and support each other, and develop together.

Promoting the development and opening-up of the TBNA will be good for exploring new regional development patterns at the new stage. Under the new situations that economic globalization and regional economic integration is speeding up and China is building a well-off society in an all-around way and constructing a harmonious socialist society, to grasp the features of changes in international and domestic situations and adopt new ideas and development patterns to promote the development and opening-up of the TBNA will be conductive to fully implementing the scientific outlook of development, realizing harmonious coexistence between man and nature, and blazing a new trail for innovative regional development.
　　

Guidelines and Main Tasks for Promoting the Development and Opening-up of the TBNA
　　

The guidelines for promoting the development and opening-up of the TBNA are as follows. With the guidance of the Deng Xiaoping Theory and the important thought of the Three Represents, the TBNA should fully adopt the scientific outlook of development, further liberate people’s mind, promote reform and opening-up, and exert competitive edge. With a high starting point and a broad vision, priorities should be laid on science and technology innovation, self-innovation, and highlighting the special characteristics of the TBNA and improving her development environment. The TBNA should adopt new ideas, new institutional systems, and new mechanisms to steadily strengthen her comprehensive competitiveness so that she will play greater roles in propelling the development of Tianjin , the economic revitalization of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region as well as the circum-Bohai region, the interaction between China’s east, west and central regions so as to achieve balance in the economic growth of the different regions of China.
　　

In order to do a good work for promoting the development and opening-up of the TBNA, the following principles should be followed. The TBNA should continue to follow the scientific outlook of development in social and economic planning and the path of scientific development. The TBNA should highlight her own special characteristics to fully exert her comparative competitive edge. The TBNA should adhere to the practice of carrying forward reform and opening-up so that greater impetus will be injected into her growth and development through reform and opening-up. The TBNA should make continual efforts of science and technology innovation and self-innovation to boost her innovation ability, thus enchancing her capability to serve, propel and promote regional economic growth. Land should be utilized in an economic an intensive way in the TBNA to substantially exert the guidance and regulatory role of land in economic growth. The TBNA should maintain sustainable development and build herself into a resource-efficient and environment-friendly new district and by putting people first, she should also promote the all-round development of a harmonious society.
　　

The function orientation of the TBNA is set as follows. With the support of Beijing Municipality, Tianjin Municipality and Hebei Province, the TBNA aims to serve the circum-Bohai region, to extend her driving force to North China, Northeast China and Northwest China and face Northeast Asia. Efforts will be exerted to build the TBNA as the gateway of North China for opening-up, a grade-A modern manufacturing, R&D, and incubation center, an international shipping and logistics center of North China. The TBNA will also be gradually built into an eco-city and an ideal dwelling (inhabitant) place featured by economic boom and social harmony.
　　

The main tasks for promoting the development and opening-up of TBNA are the following. Taking hold of the opportunity of acting as a pilot zone for comprehensive supporting reforms, the TBNA should explore new patterns of regional development and provide experience and examples for reforms and growth in other parts of China. Following a new path of industrialization, the TBNA should take the enhancement of her self-innovation ability as a central link to further improve her R&D and incubation systems and upgrade her overall technological level and comprehensiveness. Fully exerting her geographic, resources and industrial advantages, the TBNA should accelerate infrastructure construction, proactively promote the growth of hi-tech sectors and modern service sectors, and improve her comprehensive competitive edges and her ability to serve the development of the entire region as a growth engine. Through unified planning and coordination, the TBNA should build certain function zones with distinguished features, make good use of her space, and adopt powerful measures for water saving, for the intensive and efficient use of land, for reducing energy consumption, and for improving investment intensity.
　　

To Fully Exert the TBNA’s Role as a Pilot Zone for China’s Comprehensive Supporting Reforms
　　

The TBNA was recently approved by the State Council as a pilot zone for China’s comprehensive supporting reforms. Closely following the master plan of the State Council and the CPC Central Committee and based on her practical conditions, the TBNA should make proactive explorations into some major fields of China’s development and opening-up. To push forward the development and opening-up of the TBNA and expand reforms to as many fields as possible, we need to achieve a balance between single breakthroughs and the overall innovation strategy, between the economic institutional reform and other reforms, and between local solutions and general solutions.
　　

The TBNA is encouraged to take reform and innovation initiatives in the financial sector. In principle, pioneering reforms concerning financial enterprises, financial businesses, financial market and financial opening-up are allowed to be tested first within the TBNA. Based on the guidelines of scientism, prudence and risk controllability, experimental reforms can be conducted in industry investment funds, venture capital investment, mix-operation of the financial sector, multi-ownership financial enterprises, forex management policies, and offshore financing.
　　

The TBNA is encouraged to carry out land administration reform. Based on the precondition of land resource maximization, the local land use structure will be further optimized, new land management methods will be created, and the reform of land administration will be intensified. Experimental reforms will be conducted in fields such as the turnover of rutal collectively-owned construction land, the allocation of land revenues, and how to reinforce government’s control over land supply.
　　

The TBNA is expected to expand its opening-up. The Dongjiang Bonded Port Area will be set up. To build Tianjin into a real-sense international shipping & logistics hub of North China, we will ,act a coordinated, rational and phase-in planning, innocatge upon the existing institutions, and learn from international practices. The bonded port area within Dongjiang Port will focus on international relay, distribution, procurement, transit trade and export processing. To set up a feasible model and facilitate regional integration, positive efforts will also be made to find new administrative solutions to areas under special customs supervision.
　　

The TBNA will also enjoy certain supportive tax policies. Within the administrative territory of the TBNA, hi-tech enterprises which can meet certain criterion will enjoy a preferential income tax rate of 15%. Referring to the preferential income tax policies implemented in the old industrial bases of Northeast China, domestic-funded enterprises in the TBNA can enjoy a higher standard for taxable salary and they are allowed to adopt accelerated depreciation on their fixed assets and intangible assets. With the existing fiscal system unchanged, the central government will also earmark special subsidies for the development and construction of the TBNA within a certain period.
　　

To Carry Out All Efforts to Propel the TBNA’s Development and Opening-up in an Earnest Manner
　　

The promotion of the TBNA’s development and opening-up mainly relies on Tianjin’s own capacity and the enhancement of regional cooperation. Those involved departments of the State Council should take effective measures to provide support and assistance. Those relevant sides should strengthen guidance on the macro level and coordination for the promotion of the TBNA’s development and opening-up and establish necessary mechanisms of coordination and cooperation through discussion. The Tianjin Municipal Government should fully recognize that it is a long-lasting and arduous task to propel the TBNA’s development and opening-up. Therefore, it should make an overall analysis about the advantages and challenges to formulate a meticulous plan, make careful arrangement and concerted efforts for the purpose of advancing the TBNA’s development and opening-up in a smooth and orderly way and provide more effective services to promote coordinated regional development. It should further study, improve, and work out in detail the overall plan for the pilot project of comprehensive supporting reforms as well as the special plan for financial and land reforms etc., and put those plans into practice after obtaining approval according to relevant procedures. Those involved departments of the State Council should, according to this Suggestion, carry out in a down-to-earth manner the implementation of the requirements and accelerate the discussion and formulation of concrete policies and measures based upon the actual conditions of the TBNA. They should study carefully to resolve the new problems emerging in the TBNA’s development and opening-up and propose corresponding countermeasures.
　　

To propel the TBNA’s development and opening-up is a great move for implementing the instructions of the 5^th Plenary Session of the 16^th CPC Central Committee and the outline of the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for national economic and social development. It is an important step to implement China’s coordinated regional development strategy. It is also a systematic program that involves a number of aspects. All relevant development strategy of the whole China, reach a common understanding, perform full cooperation, strive to make innovations, make solid efforts, and work hard to create a new situation for the development and opening-up of the TBNA.
　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　　May 26, 2006