On June 12, the State Council Information Office held a press conference. Li Chunlin, deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Hu, member of the Standing Committee of the Guangdong Provincial Party Committee and executive vice governor, Qin Weizhong, deputy secretary-general of the Shenzhen Municipal Party Committee and mayor, and Miao Hong, deputy secretary-general of the Ministry of Science and Technology, introduced the relevant situation of the "Opinions on Deepening the Reform and Innovation and Expanding Opening-up in Shenzhen" (hereinafter referred to as the "Opinions").

Li Chunlin said that the public release of the "Opinions" by the General Office of the CPC Central Committee and the General Office of the State Council is a major measure to support Shenzhen in building a pilot demonstration zone for socialism with Chinese characteristics, an upgraded version of the implementation plan for Shenzhen's comprehensive reform pilot issued in 2020, and an important declaration of my country's unswervingly deepening reform and opening up.

"Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" Technology Cluster

Innovation Index ranked second in the world for five consecutive years

In recent years, Shenzhen has fully utilized its significant advantages in combining strong scientific and technological innovation capabilities and improving the industrial system, and accelerated the construction of an industrial science and technology innovation center with important global influence. In 2024, the number of patent authorizations reached 241,900, ranking first in the country for seven consecutive years. There are 25,000 high-tech enterprises, 1,025 specialized and new "little giants" enterprises, and the innovation index of the "Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Guangzhou" technology cluster ranks second in the world for five consecutive years.

Zhang Hu said that Shenzhen has the foundation, conditions and ability to take the lead and set an example in building a comprehensive innovation system and mechanism. The release of the "Opinions" is timely, injecting strong impetus into Shenzhen's comprehensive deepening of the reform of the science and technology system.

Li Chunlin said that the highlights of the "Opinions" are prominent in three aspects. First, the reform of system integration and synergy efficiency is highlighted. Starting from the internal correlation between reform measures, we pay attention to the coordinated linkage between reforms in the economic field and reforms in other related fields such as education, science and technology, and talents, and introduce measures with consistent orientation and mutual cooperation. Secondly, it highlights the problem-oriented and effective reform. Focus on the lockpoints and bottlenecks that restrict high-quality development, and promote coordinated and coordinated support of related links. Third, highlight the pioneering and demonstration leadership of reform. Shenzhen is the forefront of my country's reform and opening up. It fully considers the characteristics of Shenzhen's development taking the lead, rich reform scenarios, and good conditions for breakthroughs. It has launched a number of exploratory measures in terms of institutional opening up, scientific and technological innovation, talent development, and governance models.

Zhang Hu said that in the future, Guangdong will earnestly follow the central deployment and requirements and make every effort to support Shenzhen's reform exploration. The first is to support Shenzhen in coordinating the reform of the system and mechanism of education and science and technology talents, and build an industrial science and technology innovation center with global influence. Support Shenzhen in building a number of high-level universities, strengthen the main position of enterprises in scientific and technological innovation, innovate joint research and development models for key core technologies, and promote open and large-scale application of scenario creation. The second is to support Shenzhen in deepening the reform of market-oriented allocation of factors and promote the empowerment of the development of the real economy such as finance, technology, and data. Support Shenzhen in cultivating and developing long-term capital and patient capital, deepening data trading rules and scenario exploration, and improving supporting mechanisms that facilitate personnel flow. The third is to support Shenzhen in building a new open system with a higher level and build a gravitational field and gathering place for high-quality global factor resources. Support Shenzhen to strengthen the connection with high-standard international economic and trade rules and deepen cross-border trade facilitation reform. Support Qianhai to build a modern service industry cluster with high standards, and support Hetao to build a Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Comprehensive Service Center. The fourth is to support Shenzhen in benchmarking global best practices and create a first-class business environment for market-oriented, law-based and internationalization. Support Shenzhen in promoting special measures to relax market access, strengthen foreign investment guarantees, and improve the convenience system for living for foreign personnel such as residence, medical care, and payment.

Focus on building in four aspects

A new system of open economy at a higher level

It is worth noting that Shenzhen is an important gateway for opening up to the outside world. Last year, the total foreign trade import and export volume ranked first among cities in the country. The "Opinions" clearly require Shenzhen to build a new open economic system with a higher level.

In this regard, Qin Weizhong said that this "Opinion" focuses on building a new open economy system with a higher level, and supports Shenzhen in exploring and implementing a series of reform and innovation measures, providing strong support for expanding high-level opening up to the outside world and further improving the level of open development.

Qin Weizhong said that in the future, Shenzhen will insist on promoting reform and development through opening up, actively respond to external shocks, and launch a combination of "five external linkages" for foreign trade, foreign investment, outsourcing, foreign economics and foreign intelligence, and serve as a base, platform, channel, and hub in serving the domestic and international dual circulation, and strive to take the lead and set an example in building a new open economic system with a higher level.

Specifically, first, expand institutional opening up with greater efforts. Deeply implement the free trade zone improvement strategy, build major open platforms such as Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone and Hetao Shenzhen-Hong Kong Science and Technology Innovation Cooperation Zone at a high level, comprehensively benchmark high-standard international economic and trade rules, steadily expand institutional opening up such as rules, regulations, management, and standards, and strive to take the lead in the fields of property rights protection, industrial subsidies, environmental standards, and labor protection.

Second, we will build a high-level international trade hub with greater efforts. Accelerate the construction of a stable growth mechanism for import and export trade in the medium and long term, strive to promote the optimization and upgrading of goods trade, innovative development of service trade, and improve the integrated development mechanism of domestic and foreign trade. Deepen the construction of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, carry out special actions to facilitate cross-border trade, strengthen innovation in the application scenarios of digital RMB, and improve the service level of import and export credit, cross-border settlement, goods clearance, logistics and transportation to foreign trade enterprises.

Third, promote high-level two-way investment with greater efforts. Improve the working mechanism for attracting and utilizing foreign investment, fully implement the national foreign investment access policy measures and the new round of comprehensive pilot tasks for expanding the opening up of the service industry, and make every effort to ensure the national treatment of foreign-invested enterprises in factor acquisition, qualification licensing, standard formulation, government procurement, etc. At the same time, we will further improve the foreign investment management service system, strengthen international cooperation in the industrial chain and supply chain, and promote the integrated development of Shenzhen's Youcheng Yougang Network with foreign trade import and export, foreign investment, etc.

Fourth, we will improve the level of urban internationalization with greater efforts. Benchmarking against world-class cities, coordinate the construction of urban international hardware and software environments, actively participate in high-quality joint construction of the "Belt and Road", deepen international exchanges and cooperation, and strengthen the organizational cultivation and management of international industries and standards. Improve the supporting mechanism to facilitate personnel flow, deepen the reform of deeming and recognizing international professional titles, and improve the level of facilitation of overseas professionals. Strengthen and improve the construction of international communication capabilities and comprehensively enhance Shenzhen's international reputation and reputation.