Wenzhou mulls document to further open economy

The Wenzhou municipal government recently released a draft document on further accelerating the development of an open economy for public deliberation.

The document centers on building high-quality industrial clusters for foreign investment, encouraging local companies to engage in overseas investment and cross-border mergers and acquisitions, and creating new opportunities for Wenzhou in foreign trade.

In an open economy, economic activities take place freely, thus optimizing the allocation of resources and improving efficiency, according to an official of the city's bureau of commerce.

Leveraging foreign capital, pushing ahead with foreign investment and boosting foreign trade are keys to promoting economic development, transforming and upgrading industrial structures and fostering new economic drivers, the official added.

As a way to build high-quality industrial clusters for foreign investment, Wenzhou plans to further support projects relating to business and initiating investment, encourage foreign-invested companies enterprises to go public and encourage foreign investors to carry out mergers and acquisitions in Wenzhou.

Attracting overseas highly-skilled professionals to start businesses and do innovative work in Wenzhou is the highlight of the newly released document. The government will strive to make it more convenient for overseas professionals to work and live in Wenzhou by simplifying relevant administrative procedures.

The document also points out that the government will encourage companies to be involved in the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones and encourage them to set up branches in these zones.

According to the draft document, the government will further assist companies in building overseas warehouses. Currently, Wenzhou has 21 warehouses in 12 countries including Serbia, the United Kingdom, the United States and Germany. The trade value of overseas warehouses in 2017 reached $160 million, a year-on-year increase of 15 percent.