The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has issued new measures to drive the market opening of the Chinese financial hub of Shanghai and the surrounding Yangtze River Delta region.
On 10 November NDRC issued the “Three Year Action Plan for the Development of a First-class International Commercial Environment in the Yangtze River Delta” (长三角国际一流营商环境建设三年行动方案).
The Plan sets the target of transforming the Yangtze River Delta into a “unified, open market system” by 2025, characterised by the “orderly and free flow of resources and factors of production and the gradual removal of administrative barriers.”
According to NDRC, by 2025 the Yangtze River Delta will be “comprehensively integrated with the international high-level market rules system.”
“Coordinated opening will reach an even higher level…trade and investment and administrative services will be even more convenient, and systemic trade costs will markedly decline.
“The level for activity and the quality of development of market entities markedly increase, and the efficiency of government administration will comprehensively increase.
“The overall level and efficiency of regional development will further increase…[the Yangtze River Delta] will take the lead in establishing a market-based, rule-of-law-based and internationalised first-grade commercial environment, and its international competitiveness will leap to the forefront globally.”
