Key role for bases that focus on innovation

China will take a series of measures to improve the leading role of demonstration bases for mass entrepreneurship and innovation to further stabilize employment and add impetus to economic growth.

The country will develop demonstration bases into important platforms for entrepreneurship and employment, pioneers of integration and innovation, and important nodes for global entrepreneurship, according to a guideline released by the State Council on July 30.

The guideline urged efforts to implement relief policies for startup businesses, improve services for promoting the resumption of work and production at startup and innovative enterprises, and strengthen financial support for entrepreneurship and innovation.

To facilitate employment promotion through entrepreneurship, the guideline called for reinforcing policy support for businesses started by people returning to or moving to the countryside, and improving the skills of college students in innovation and entrepreneurship.

Meanwhile, large companies and various entities in demonstration bases were encouraged to create job opportunities.

The guideline also stressed the integration of different sized firms, the coordination of production, education and research, and cooperation between different types of demonstration bases to stimulate innovation.

China will facilitate the establishment of bilateral and multilateral platforms for entrepreneurship, support demonstration bases to deepen opening-up, and enhance international cooperation to ramp up global entrepreneurship, it said.

Further opening-up to stabilize foreign trade

China will further stabilize foreign trade and investment through expanded opening-up, and push ahead with trials of innovative development in trade in services in an effort to take the country's opening-up to a higher level, the State Council decided at an executive meeting on July 29.

A statement released after the meeting, which was presided over by Premier Li Keqiang, said the government placed great emphasis on maintaining stability in foreign trade and investment.

The meeting said that foreign trade businesses will be supported in strengthening resilience against risks. For example, a "credit insurance plus guarantee" model will be encouraged to increase business credit for foreign trade companies.

It also decided that central, western and northeastern provinces will be encouraged to tap into their strengths and host relocated labor-intensive industries focused on foreign trade.

New forms of business, such as cross-border e-commerce, overseas warehouses, and enterprises that provide comprehensive foreign trade services, will receive more support, according to the meeting.

To create a more investment-friendly policy environment, the meeting said that key foreign investment projects will receive greater support in terms of land use, and the accreditation of high-tech foreign-invested companies will be made easier.

Seventeen regions — including Shanghai, Hainan province, Beijing and Xiong'an New Area — have been running trials on the innovative development of trade in services since 2016.

In keeping with regional development strategies, the meeting decided to expand the trials to 21 provincial areas.