Suzhou develops its commercial sector

Suzhou is developing its commercial sector mainly in five aspects — the service industry, cross-border e-commerce, market procurement, general VAT payer qualification and supply chain systems.

As a testing ground for the development of the trade in services since 2016, Suzhou has initiated a number of innovative policies, many of which have been replicated nationwide.

The city has set up tasks to improve service trade management, expand two-way opening-up of the service industry, cultivate more market players, create new development models, improve the level of service trade facilitation, optimize supportive policies, improve service trade statistics system and establish in-event and subsequent monitoring.

Transport, finance, service outsourcing, intellectual property rights, cross-border maintenance and repair, culture and tourism are highlights in the development of service trade.

Trade in services reported more than US$16.23 billion last year, up 15 percent from a year earlier.

By the end of last year, Suzhou had approved more than 1,100 foreign investment projects in the service sector. Foreign investment in services is mainly in fields of commerce, hotels and resorts, research and development, culture and education.

The largest economic city in Jiangsu Province is also developing cross-border e-commerce. An online comprehensive service platform is connected with government agencies and provides one-stop solutions for enterprises.

Ti Gong

The platform is the first in the country to provide business-to-business export claims. The cross-border e-commerce has reported 13 billion yuan (US$1.87 billion) of export since it was established in January 2016. More and more Suzhou-made machinery, electronic and textile products are exported to overseas markets through cross-border e-commerce.

At the same time, Suzhou is cultivating local e-commerce enterprises in a bid to introduce more leading firms and enhance the development of cross-border business-to-consumer e-commerce.

The city is accelerating the construction of the cross- border e-commerce industry chain and ecosystems. Based on the manufacturing sector and with the support of 10 local industrial parks, Suzhou is promoting the deep integration of upstream and downstream businesses in cross-border e-commerce, such as procurement, production, payment and logistics as well as the agglomeration of industries.

A number of online platforms help small and medium sized enterprises go abroad. Financial institutions offer enterprises cross-border financial solutions. Logistics firms build overseas warehouses as well as cross-border delivery systems. There are also online platforms providing one-stop solutions for import and export issues.

The administration of foreign exchange removes the upper limit of annual settlement of US$150,000 for individuals doing cross-border e-commerce. It also supports third-party payment to launch cross-border settlement.

E-commerce enterprises work with EMS, China Post and the comprehensive service platform to jointly promote B2C cross-border e-commerce and offer customized export services for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The online comprehensive service platform will connect with Global eTrade Services (GeTS) of ASEAN countries and become the only exchange center of GeTS on the mainland. The platform will build a virtual bonded area to serve general taxpayers and offer online tax refund services for overseas visitors.

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Meanwhile, Changshu Garments Town has been granted by the Ministry of Commerce to be one of the markets for procurement trade. Market procurement trade is where a purchase occurs at a market authorized by a legitimate government commercial department with a customs debenture worth of US$150,000 or below and with the clearance gone through at the market. Added-value tax is not levied in such a market.

In the first eight months of the year, the Changshu market reported US$829 million of exports. The total export amount exceeds US$2.1 billion since the market kicked off operations in February 2017. The next step is to further expand trade to promote the construction of Changshu International Trade and Logistics Port.

Since the beginning of the year, the comprehensive bonded area of Suzhou High-tech Zone and Wujiang comprehensive bonded area have joined the practice of value-added tax general taxpayer status.

By the end of August, 40 enterprises in four comprehensive bonded areas had took part in the general VAT payer qualification pilot program. The VAT invoices with a total value of 5.497 billion yuan were issued.

At the same time, the construction of a supply chain system is underway. Suzhou piloted the scheme last year. At present, the work is steadily advancing.

The first phase involves 40 projects — 22 are platforms while 18 are logistics projects. Of these, 36 projects completed a total investment of 831 million yuan.

Suzhou will learn from Shenzhen as the city has been considered as a leading role in the development of supply chain and home to more than 20,000 supply chain enterprises.

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