On Nov. 4, Suzhou officially launched the development of the National Demonstration Zone for Innovative Development of Trade in Services. According to the action plan unveiled at the Conference on Invigorating the City Through Opening-up, Suzhou will roll out 18 measures covering five areas, aiming to raise its import and export volume of trade in services to more than US$36 billion by 2030, with an average annual growth rate of around 10%, and lift the share of digitally deliverable trade in services to about 60% of the total.
Suzhou was selected as one of the first cities to develop the National Demonstration Zone for Innovative Development of Trade in Services on Apr. 22. As an open city with a robust economy, Suzhou is prioritizing producer services, consumer services, and digital trade. More than 30 key projects are advancing in an orderly manner, and the liberalization and facilitation of its trade in services have improved markedly.
The plan specifies that Suzhou will support producer services such as integrated circuit design and biopharmaceutical R&D, consumer services including inbound tourism and international education, as well as new forms of digital trade. It will back enterprises in adopting agent tools and tokens. The city will upgrade service capacity at specialized service export bases, scale up fiscal, tax and financial support, and boost the application of cutting-edge technologies. It will encourage eligible high-quality enterprises to join cross-border high-level opening-up pilot programs, granting them easier access to cross-border RMB settlement. Compliance guidance for outbound data transfer will be provided to empower enterprises to conduct business such as offshore data processing. Efforts will also be made to strengthen intellectual property protection and streamline channels for handling patent disputes.
