In accordance with the Opinions of the People’s Government of Guangzhou on Accelerating the Development of Service Trade (Sui Fu No.29 [2015]) and the requirements of Guangzhou for carrying out national pilot program for an innovative development of service trade, the Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce recently drafted the Measures for Management of Funds for Development of Service Trade of Guangzhou (hereinafter referred to as the Management Measures) and other three documents and is soliciting public opinions on them. In accordance with these documents, identified key service trade demonstration zones and bases will be respectively provided with lump-sum financial support of RMB500,000 and RMB300,000 at most.

 

Service trade enterprises and platform to get financial support

 

The Management Measures said, applicants for the financial support should be enterprises, public institutions and social organizations engaged in service trade, with legal registration in Guangzhou and no illegal behaviors in business operations, financial management, foreign exchange management, export rebates, inspection and quarantine for import and export and compliance to customs supervision within the latest two years.

 

The funds will be used in the following aspects: first, support for key national pilot programs for an innovative development of service trade and support for relevant policies; second, identified key service trade demonstration zones and bases, service trade demonstration enterprises and enterprises under priority cultivation for service trade; third, support for enterprises engaged in fields related to service trade to build brands for service export, get international certification and carry out other activities for internationalized service business operation; construction of public platforms for technology research and development, marketing, certification, testing, training and information services in the key fields of service trade.

 

The Management Measures specifies the support standards. For key projects under the national pilot program for an innovative development of service trade, lump-sum financial support of up to RMB100,000 will be provided for each project. In addition, certain financial support will be provided for relevant policies. For identified key service trade demonstration zones, lump-sum financial support of up to RMB500,000 will be provided for each zone; for identified key service trade demonstration bases, lump-sum financial support of up to RMB300,000 will be provided for each base. For identified service trade demonstration enterprises, financial support of up to RMB200,000 will be provided for each enterprise. For identified enterprises under priority cultivation for service trade, financial support of up to RMB150,000 will be provided for each enterprise.

 

It is worth mentioning that the Management Measures also includes standards for support for public service trade platforms. For the construction of public platforms for technology research and development, marketing, certification, testing, training and information services in the key fields of service trade, financial support of up to 50% of actually incurred expenditures will be provided, and the support for each platform project will not exceed RMB1 million.

 

In addition to the Management Measures, three supporting documents, including the Measures of Guangzhou for Identification and Management of Service Trade Demonstration Zones and Bases, the  Measures of Guangzhou for Identification and Management of Service Trade Demonstration Enterprises and Enterprises under Priority Cultivation for Service Trade and the Measures of Guangzhou for Management of Funds for Public Platforms for Service Trade, have been made public at the same time for soliciting opinions, aiming to further promote the development of service trade of Guangzhou.

 

Nansha to play a core role for development of service trade of Guangzhou

 

At the beginning of this year, Guangzhou got the approval of the State Council to carry out the pilot program for an innovative development of service trade. Related experts said that, currently, the overseas market demand shows a slow recovery and the traditional trade in goods faces great challenges, while the globalization of service trade brings new opportunities for growth.

 

Relevant data indicated that, Guangzhou has more than 8,000 enterprises engaged in service trade and more enterprises engaged in the service industry, and a cluster-based development pattern has taken shape. In 2015, the total imports and exports in service trade of Guangzhou reached USD29.17 billion, up 14.5% year-on-year, including total exports of USD15.64 billion, up 13.3%, and total imports of USD13.53 billion, up 16.0%. In the first half of this year, the total volume of service trade reached USD16.97 billion, up 23.9%, including total exports of USD7.54 billion, up 9.5%, and total imports of USD9.43 billion, up 38.5%. The service trade industry has shown a trend for accelerated growth.

 

Related person in charge of the Division of Service Trade of the Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce said that they are making supporting measures to identify a number of demonstration zones and enterprises as well as public platforms. Development direction will be set based on 12 fields of service trade, for example, development of transportation targeting at the supply chain, and development of tourism through the online and offline means and taking advantage of the visa-on-arrival and visa-free policies concerning Hong Kong and Macao. The 13^th Five-Year Plan of Guangzhou describes the “one core and three zones” pattern for the development of service trade. Specifically, the free trade zone in Nansha will play a core role for the innovative development of service trade, coordinating with the development of Tianhe CBD, Pazhou, Guangzhou Aerotroplis and Guangzhou Bonded Area.

 

According to the Guangzhou Municipal Commission of Commerce, in the future, the synergistic effect of the pilot free trade zone, the national development district and other platforms will be given full play to take a lead to carry out pilot projects in various fields and explore systems and rules meeting international norms. Great efforts will be made to make innovation of the development mechanism and integrate the development of service trade with the expansion of opening-up to promote breakthroughs in service trade relying the implementation of the “bring in” and “go global” strategies and the trade in goods. On the other hand, innovation of cooperation mechanism should be made to give full play to the function of Guangzhou as a bridgehead in cooperating with Hong Kong and Macao, expanding influence in the Southeast Asia, promoting the cooperation based on “the Belt and Road” and launching cooperation with developed European and American countries in service trade.

 

Moreover, great efforts will be made to develop new types of services, such as intellectual property, cross-border e-business, offshore trade and auto parallel import services, to enhance the driving force for the development of service trade. Also, emphasis should be laid on seeking for a strong development of service outsourcing and expanding related market as well as expanding the development spaces in the key fields, such as information technology, knowledge flow and business process.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, September 2, 2016