On January 22, 2017, the Provincial Department of Commerce held a press conference, Jiao Jinmiao, the Director of Department, notified the province's business operations and opening work, and the promotions of China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the China (Zhengzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone in 2016. Gao Zhangfa and Sun Jinglin, Deputy directors of Department, answered the reporter’s questions. The responsible person of relevant offices under the Department attended the conference. Nearly 40 news media participated in the press conference.

On January 22, 2017, the Provincial Department of Commerce held a press conference, Jiao Jinmiao, the Director of Department, notified the province's business operations and opening work, and the promotions of China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone and the China (Zhengzhou) Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone in 2016. Gao Zhangfa and Sun Jinglin, Deputy directors of Department, answered the reporter’s questions. The responsible person of relevant offices under the Department attended the conference. Nearly 40 news media participated in the press conference.

I. About the Province business operations and opening investment work in 2016

In 2016, facing the complex and severe economic situation, the Provincial commerce structure conscientiously implements the Provincial and Municipal government's decisions and arrangements, firmly establishes the new development concept, insists on the overall principle of steady progress, takes the initiative to grasp and lead the new status of economic development, actively promotes the supply side structural reform, continues to expand the reform and promote the development, and invigorate the commodity flow and boost the demand to benefit the public. The Provincial overall business operation is good, steady progress has been made, and the quality is stably improved. There is a full growth in total retail sales of social consumer goods, goods trade, service trade, the introduction of domestic and foreign investments, external investment and contracted projects. It is a good start the "Thirteenth Five-Year-Plan" commercial development, and provides a strong support for the provincial economic and social developments.

(I) The open-door implementation and investment attraction present a new situation.

Have uniformly promoted the Provincial open-door work. Held a high-standard open-door work conference, introduced the action plan and department work special program, carried out a comprehensive assessment on the Provincial open-door work, regularly notified the progress of open-door economic indexes, and promoted the work of attracting external investment. Have successfully built the China (Henan) Pilot Free Trade Zone, and solidly promoted the construction of Cross-border E-commerce Comprehensive Pilot Zone. The exports of Xinzheng Comprehensive Bonded Zone ranks first in the country, Nanyang Wolong Comprehensive Bonded Zone passes the pre-acceptance, and Zhengzhou Economic Development Comprehensive Bonded Zone is approved. After both sides’ great efforts, the Sino- Europe trains (Zhengzhou) are now available for go/return for 4 schedules. The comprehensive indicators rank among the top in China; have opened up the land linkage channel of “One Belt and One Road”. Have introduced the proposals on promoting the economic development zone transformation/ upgrading/ innovation, and have clarified the tasks of all departments at all levels. Have issued the assessment evaluation index system and the appraisal method of the Economic Development Zone to further strengthen the constraints and control mechanism.

Actively carry on industry transformation. Successfully held the 10th China (Henan) International Investment and Trade Fair; more than 20,000 merchants participated in the Fair, more than half of provincial and municipal leaders led the delegation to attend the Fair, and a total investment of RMB473.4 billion Yuan was signed at this Fair. Held the spring tea enjoying activities for Hong Kong entrepreneurs; participated in the Hong Kong's first "one belt & one road" Summit Forum. Have carried out the business negotiations at the Xiamen CIFIT, China-ASEAN Expo, Asia-Europe Expo, and Shenzhen Hi-Tech Fair and other national economic and trade platforms, and have signed the trade amount of RMB60 billion Yuan. Have promoted the strategic cooperations with Evergrande Group, Golden Concord Holdings Limited, EDF, Country Garden Property and other well-known enterprises at home and abroad. A special inspection was made On the investment projects signed. The rate of closure of foreign complaints increased to 92.3%.

For the foreign-funded enterprises, the registered capital system is changed from the paid capital system to the subscribed capital system. The establishment and alteration of foreign-funded enterprises that do not involve the special management measures stipulated by the State was changed from case-by-case examination to filing management since October last year. The processing duration was reduced from 20 workdays to 3 workdays, which won the time and efficiency for production business. The approval of processing trade business is all changed to the recording system management, and the approval for enterprise direct external investment is changed to mainly the recording system management. The replication and promotion of Shanghai and other pilot free trade zone reform pilot experiences are progressing smoothly, and the enterprises have enjoyed the reform dividends.

(II) The quality and efficiency of investment attraction are improved.

In 2016, the Province has actually utilized the foreign capital of 16.99 billion US dollars, the actual amount of foreign funds in place  is RMB 843.81 billion Yuan, and there is an increase of 5.6% and 7.9% based on the same basis. The use of domestic and foreign capital accounted for nearly 30% of the province's fixed asset investment. There are 114 foreign investment projects with the investment of more than 10 million US dollars, accounting for nearly 60% of the newly approved projects. There are 325 domestic investment projects with the investment of more than RMB 1 billion Yuan.

Strategic investors continued to expand investment in our province, and a large number of quality projects are established in Henan. For the foreign investment, Foxconn invested RMB28 billion Yuan in Zhengzhou Economic Development Zone to produce the 6th generation low temperature polysilicon thin film transistor liquid crystal display device. Hong Fujin Precision Electronics (Zhengzhou) Co., Ltd. expanded its investment to US $ 5.95 billion and became the largest foreign-funded enterprise in our province France Electric Power, Pepsi and Switzerland Schindler and other Fortune 500 companies have expanded investment in Henan. For domestic investment, the following significant projects were established in 2016: Shenzhen Jinrui Fortune invested RMB10 billion Yuan to establish the Zhongyuan Jin Rui (Gushi) High-tech Industrial Park; Wangfujing invested RMB6 billion Yuan in Xinxiang plain commercial town project; Suzhou Dewei invested RMB5 billion Yuan in Zhumadian Dewei cable material Industrial Park; China Unicom Investment Fund invested RMB4.2 billion Yuan in Xuchang Electronic Appliance High-tech Industrial Park; China Railway invested RMB3 billion Yuan in Pingdingshan Zheng Wan high-speed rail building materials logistics park; Chongqing Gelui Lin invested RMB3 billion Yuan in Xuchang Chinese medicine health logistics park.

Investment structure is optimized. Financial leasing, high-class business, cultural tourism, logistics supply chain, pension/health care, etc. become a new hot investment. The new foreign investment enterprises in service industry accounted for 48.5%. The actually invested capital outside of the Province in the tertiary industry accounted for 45.4% of the province. The utilization rate of foreign fund in information transmission and computer services, leasing and commercial services increased by 4.9 times and 3.3 times respectively. Hong Kong Hengyue Group Holdings invested 230 million US dollars to set up the Central Plains aviation finance leasing company. The Cainiao Holding increased more than 66 million US dollars investment in Zhengzhou Chuan Tai Things Internet Company. Beijing Enterprises Group Company Limited invested in environmental protection projects in Zhengzhou, Jiyuan, Shangqiu; China Resources Wind Power Company invested in new energy companies in Queshan and Wugang.

The source of funds is highly concentrated. The external funds attracted by our Province are concentrated in Hong Kong, accounting for 58.6% of the province; the external funds attracted from Singapore, Taiwan, the Virgin Islands and the United States accounted for 21%. The industrial transfer funds from Beijing, Guangdong, Zhejiang, Shanghai, Jiangsu and Shandong 6 provinces and cities are RMB546.7 billion Yuan, accounting for 64.8% of the province. The Henan-Beijing cooperation results show that the Beijing enterprise’s investment in Henan reached RMB129.3 billion Yuan, ranking first; the investment increase from Jiangsu is the largest, up to 20.7%.

(III) Ranked in the top ten list of foreign trade.

In 2016, the international market demand is weak, and foreign trade situation is very grim. We made a quick analysis on such situation and took fast actions, implemented the comprehensive policy from two aspects of steady growth and structural adjustment, and input the focus and efforts accurately. Have issued the processing trade, service outsourcing, trade services and other policy measures, and established the supervision, notification, interviews and other systems. The provincial cargo trade was increased month by month since May, was up to RMB471.47 billion Yuan for the whole year, with an increase of 2.6%, which was 3.5% higher than the national average increase. For the first time, Henan is ranked in the top ten list of foreign trade. Of which the exports amount was RMB283.53 billion Yuan, with an increase of 5.7%. Have promoted the approval of Zhengzhou as one of the China's service outsourcing model cities and the State-level processing trade undertaking/ transfer demonstration sites. There are 7 State-level foreign trade transformation/ upgrading demonstration bases in our the province; there are 42 provincial demonstration bases; the base exports accounted for more than 70% of the province.

The trade structure is further optimized. The amount of general trade import and export is RMB131 billion Yuan, accounting for 27.8%, with an increase of 8.5%. The amount of processing trade import and export is RMB321.4 billion Yuan, accounting for 68.2%, with an increase of 1.7%. The amount of completed service trade is 6.95 billion US dollars, with an increase of 18.9%. There is a full growth of import and export in the State-owned enterprises, foreign invested enterprises and private enterprises, of which the import/ export amount of entire provincial private enterprises accounted for 22.0%, with an increase of 7.7%, the highest increase in the province, and is an important force in foreign trade. There are 6120 enterprises with import and export performance in the whole Province, with an increase of 474 enterprises over the previous year.

The main trade market differentiation is obvious. The provincial trade with the EU and Japan is strongly increased, with an increase of 75.5% and 29.5% respectively. The import/export amount with BRIC countries is RMB26.34 billion Yuan, with an increase of 20.7%, of which the imports/ exports amount with Russia increased by 76.2%. For the United States which is the province's largest trading partner, the amount of import and export with USA decreased by 19.4%. The amount of imports and exports with Hong Kong, ASEAN and South Korea fell by 25%, 2.7% and 27.8% respectively.

Commodity structure is further optimized. The amount of mechanical and electrical products export and high-tech exports increased by 8.1% and 8.7% respectively. The electronic information industry, with mobile phone sector as the representative, has become a pillar industry of foreign trade in our Province. The import/export amount of Foxconn enterprises is RMB317.2 billion Yuan, with an increase of 2.1%, accounting for 67.3% of the provincial import and export amount. The amount of agricultural exports is RMB12.83 billion Yuan, with an increase of 22.9%, of which the export amount of garlic & tobacco increased by 78.4% and 74.1% respectively, and the export amount of teas increased by nearly 3 times. Have guided the enterprises to actively expand the scale of imports, the import amount of copper ore, metal processing machine tools, and medical appliances/equipment increased by more than 70%.

(IV) Consumption’s steady growth plays a prominent role.

The total retail sales of social consumer goods reached 1761.8 billion YUAN, ranking fifth in the country with an year-on-year increase of 11.9%, higher than the national average growth rate by 1.4 percentage points. Regional consumption structure is continuously optimized. The province's urban consumer goods retail sales is 1.44 trillion YUAN, with an increase of 11.7%; rural consumer goods retail sales is 321.85 billion YUAN with an increase of 12.8%. The rural market faster than the urban market by 1.1 percentage points. New format consumption grows rapidly. E-commerce transaction volume exceeded one trillion, reaching 1003.3 billion YUAN with an increase of 30%; online retail sales is 190.6 billion YUAN with an increase of 43.3%, accounting for 10.8% of total retail sales of social consumption. With the gradual decline in the cost of circulation, the province's total social logistics costs is 650 billion YUAN. Its costs–to-GDP ratio was 16.2%, down by 0.2 percentage points over the previous year.

Speed up the development of domestic trade circulation. The provincial government promulgated Implementation opinion about the promotion of domestic trade circulation modernization and construction of legal business environment, and held provincial meetings to promote the modernization of domestic trade circulation, to carry out provincial comprehensive pilot of modernization of domestic trade circulation in six provincial cities including Luoyang, Anyang, Jiaozuo, Xuchang, Nanyang, Zhumadian and two provincial municipalities including Gongyi, Yongcheng. Zhengzhou has achieved initial results in carrying out comprehensive pilot of system reform and development of the national trade circulation, and built a number of new markets and traceable standard "vegetable basket" production base and formed the base of direct purchasing, direct supply and direct distribution of modern circulation mode of agricultural products. Promoting the national cross-regional agricultural products circulation infrastructure pilot construction, Henan Wanbang international agricultural logistics city’s annual turnover reached 60 billion YUAN. The province was identified as one of the 10 provinces to develop cold chain logistics by central financial support, getting support funds 200 million YUAN to construct information system, standardized system and hardware support system of cold chain logistics.

Promote the further development of e-commerce. Introduced a number of opinions to develop e-commerce and accelerate the development of new economic power, and improved the e-commerce development of the top-level design and promoting system. Promote continually the creation model of e-commerce. Newly identified 32 provincial e-commerce demonstration base, 107 demonstration enterprises. The province has national e-commerce demonstration base 3, demonstration enterprises 7, provincial demonstration base (zone) 57, 220 demonstration enterprises. Identified more than 4800 enterprises for filed e-commerce. Brand e-commerce is growing. A number of platform enterprises including China Grain network, GONGCHANG network, QIHUIWANG, Zhonggang network ranked the forefront of domestic segmenting industry. Zhengzhou Boiler cross-border e-commerce, Luoyang HATHA consumer goods e-commerce grew more than 50%. More than 40 companies in our province are public listed.

Continually promote e-commerce into rural areas . Six newly demonstration County of national e-commerce into the rural areas, getting central financial support 90 million YUAN. The total number of demonstration counties reached 21. For the provincial finance 100 million YUAN to support 25 counties to carry out provincial demonstration, reached a total of 27. National and provincial levels demonstration Counties reached 48, covering nearly half of the province's cities and counties, walking in the forefront of the country. Two-level demonstration has been built a large number of county-level e-commerce service center and village service sites, training staff of nearly 0.2 million people, nearly 20,000 online shop, arrangements for employment of 65,000 people. E-commerce turnover exceeded 30 billion YUAN and network retail sales of nearly 15 billion YUAN. Rural e-commerce has played an important role in adjusting the structure of agricultural industry, promoting agricultural efficiency, increasing farmers' income, expanding rural employment and realizing precise poverty alleviation. It has become a new engine to stimulate rural consumption and a new impetus to promote the development of rural economy.

Consumption transformation lead the growth is very obvious. Cultural and entertainment, sports health, public catering and other service consumption continue to be hot. Sports and entertainment, electronic publications and audio-visual products and cultural goods increased by 37.3%, 32.1% and 13.2% respectively, with an increase of 12.2, 18.1 and 2.7 percentage points respectively over the previous year. Affected by the expiration of half purchase tax for small displacement vehicle by the end of 2016, the car consumption increased by 12.8%. The growth rate of basic life consumption including grain and oil food, clothing and footwear and daily necessities are slightly declined. Accelerate the development of popularization, chaining, branding of accommodation catering industry and achieve a breakthrough in the development scale of accommodation catering industry, moved to the fourth in the country and first in the in the Midwest. Identified the fourth batch of 19 “Henan time-honored brand” enterprises and brands. Until now the province has “China time-honored brand” enterprises 22 and “Henan time-honored brand”  enterprises 105. Identified the second batch of 22 brand consumption gathering area with a total of 44. Promote Dennis David City to become one of the first batch of 15 green shopping malls.

(V) Entering the global at a faster pace.

In 2016, the province's foreign contracted projects and labor cooperation newly signed contract amount 4.47 billion US dollars with an increase of 3.1%, ranked ninth in the country and second in the Middle. the second in the middle. It completed turnover5.27 billion US dollars, with an increase of 9%, ranked NO.13 in the country. New signed 48 projects with contract amount more than 10 million US dollars, mainly related to transportation, petrochemical, industrial and electrical engineering construction. Henan International, Hua Luxing Road, China Railway Seventh, Zhongyuan Petroleum, CITIC Heavy Industries and other large enterprises played a good lead effect. Major projects: Zhengzhou Hua Luxing signed a new 610 million US dollars highway project in Angola; Henan International signed a new 570 million US dollars road repair upgrade project in Zambia; Zhongyuan Petroleum Engineering signed a new 310 million US dollars drilling and repairing wells in Saudi Arabia.

Newly filed 188 foreign investment projects and the amount of foreign investment in Chinese side in the agreement reached 4.34 billion US dollars, with an increase of 86.6%, ranked ninth in the country and first in the six provinces in Central China. There are 21 projects with an amount of foreign investment in Chinese side more than US $ 30 million, which are mainly concentrated in mining, agriculture, forestry and animal husbandry and estate. mainly concentrated in Hong Kong, the United States and Africa. Major projects: China Molybdenum co., Ltd acquired the Anglo American's high-quality niobium business in Brazil and the 56% shares of Congo (gold) copper and cobalt ore of Freeport-McMoRan DRC Holdings Limited and became a world-class rare metal leading enterprise. Xinxiang Bigang leather industry invested 440million US dollars to establish China - Africa modern animal husbandry circular economy industrial zone in Ethiopia and Henan Zhongfeida invested 160 million US dollars to set up China-Chad Metallurgical co.,ltd in Chad.

Foreign economic and trade cooperation zone achieved new breakthroughs. Take promoting the construction of foreign economic and trade cooperation zone as a key to compile the incubation plan, and to report and interface actively with the Ministry of Commerce. promote the “Asian Star Agricultural Industrial Cooperation Zone" invested and established by Henan Guiyou to be the first state-level foreign economic and trade cooperation zone in our province. Henan province achieved a zero breakthrough in state-level foreign economic and trade cooperation zone, which is fully affirmed by governor Chen Runer.

    Pioneered the building a foreign economic cooperation project library and the “go out” blanket insurance platform. In Henan Daily News, it is announced the annual examination results of qualification of foreign labor cooperative enterprises. Assignment services is 72,000 people with an increase of 2.1%, ranked fifth in the country and first in the six provinces in Central China. Thoroughly verified the province’s foreign contracted engineering enterprises and standardized the filing work of foreign direct investment.

(VI) Business supervision is further strengthened.

To further rectify and standardize the market order. Carried out internet financial risk special rectification in business field, investigating pawn, auction, finance leasing and commodity spot transactions of 742 enterprises. We have strengthened single-purpose commercial prepaid card management and guide various cities and counties to properly handle such prepaid card emergencies as that in Jiutouya, Pingdingshan. We have strengthened special industry management and introduced the supervision and management measures for Henan Provincial Spot Commodity Transaction Place and the implementation opinions on accelerating the development of financial lease industry. We have introduced the management measures for holding exhibition activities within the jurisdiction of Party and government organizations.

We are speeding up the construction of the traceability system for the circulation of important commodities. The provincial government has introduced the implementation recommendations on the construction of the traceability system for the circulation of important commodities, especially for 8 major categories of eight major categories of commodities. The traceability systems for the circulation of meat and vegetables in Zhengzhou City and Luohe City have entered the stage of final acceptance and the construction of traceability system for the circulation of traditional Chinese medicinal materials, We have introduced Interim Measures of Henan Provincial Department of Commerce for Credit Information Collection and Application and Implement Plan of Henan Provincial Department of Commerce for Credit Information Collection and Application, and completed the basic preparation for Henan Business Credit Network.

We are a national pioneer when it comes to the supervision and law enforcement for commerce in the country. Provincial 12312 Reporting and Complaint Center has been established and started running. A total of 148 supervision and law enforcement departments and one hundred and twenty seven 12312 commerce reporting and complaint service centers (stations)for commerce have been established at the provincial, city and county level, the highest coverage around China. The number of commerce supervision and law enforcement officers has exceeded 3,000 and 3, 992 violations of laws and regulations have been concluded with administrative power. Such cities and counties as Gushi, Ruzhou, Xinxian and Guangshan have extended commerce supervision to grass-roots villages and towns, which is highly praised by the Ministry of Commerce. The comprehensive pilot reform on the administrative law enforcement in 11 cities and counties including Hebi and provincial business fields is making steady progress. Our plan to create a “Henan Model” which features the establishment of a province-city-county comprehensive supervision and law enforcement system, relatively concentration of law enforcement power, the implementation of “stick &  grid” supervision and law enforcement model and the downward shifting of the focus of supervision and law enforcement has been highly thought of by the Ministry of Commerce. There are nearly 30 areas for supervision and law enforcement in the whole province, a total of 4, 666 reporting and complaint cases were received by the Department of Commerce, of which 4, 188 were concluded and 3, 775 were concluded, and consulting service was provided to 15, 000 people; over 200, 000 person-time was recorded for the commerce supervision and law enforcement departments. Over 126, 000 enterprises and businesses were inspected, 7, 773 violations against laws and regulations were detected, 3, 992 of which were concluded with administrative power.

Remarkable achievements have been made in the crackdown on the infringement and counterfeit. Under the overall planning and coordination of the provincial anti-infringement and anti-counterfeit group office, various regions and functional departments, under the country’s unified deployment and through effective collaboration, led a series of special rectification activities in the fields of the Internet, the rural area and urban-rural fringe, vehicle fuel, promotion of copyrighted software and improve the overseas image of Made in China. In view of the practical situation of Henan Province, we strengthened the day-today supervision of key industries and commodities, hunt down and uprooted a number of dens for manufacturing and selling counterfeit food and drug, tobacco and salt products. Various levels of relevant administrative and law enforcement departments have concluded 12, 382 cases, which involved 79.88 million yuan. The public security organ uncovered 1, 091 cases of infringement and counterfeit and arrested 1, 314 suspects, with the amount of money involved reaching 650 million yuan. 1, 540 criminals were brought to justice, which had effectively curbed the momentum of infringement and counterfeit and safeguarded the legitimate rights and interests of consumers and producers. At the Tenth Plenary Meeting of National Leading Group for Anti-infringement and Anti-counterfeit Work, the representatives of our province made a keynote speech, which was highly affirmed by vice premier Wang Yang.

II. The application for the establishment of China (Henan) Free Trade Zone

Right after the establishment of Shanghai Free Trade Zone in 2013, our department organized a group of officers to conduct a systematic research and analysis on the necessity and feasibility of establishing Henan Free Trade Zone, started the application for the establishment of Henan Free Trade Zone and listed the endeavor as a major event of Henan Provincial Party Committee and included it in the government report of Henan Province. The provincial government set up a leading group, our department sent personnel for field visits in Shanghai, Tianjin, Fujian and Guangdong Free Trade Zone, thoroughly investigated proposed areas and conducted an in-depth research and demonstration on the coverage, function partition, development goal, major industry, reform demand and testing contents of Henan Free Trade Zone, submitted the application and general planning for the establishment of China (Henan) Free Trade Zone, actively replicated and promoted the successful experience of the pilot test of Shanghai Free Trade Zone and reported to the Ministry of Commerce dozens of times to win their support through communication.

With three years’ unremitting efforts, on August 31, 2016, Minister Gao Hucheng announced to the outside the decision on establishing new free trade zones in seven provinces and cities in Henan, requiring Henan to implement the CPC Center;L Committee’s requirements of speeding up the establishment of modern three-dimensional transportation system and modern logistics system and focused on the construction of modern integrated transportation hub to serve “one belt and one road” construction. Since last September, the Provincial Department of Commerce and Provincial Free Trade Zone Office repeatedly modified and perfected the zoning and overall planning of the area and submitted the revision to the Ministry of Commerce. We also sent personnel to the Ministry of Commerce. For a whole month, they communicated each reform demand to the ministerial officials and continued to modify and perfect the general planning. At present, we are submitting application to the CPC Central Committee and the State Council in accordance with relevant procedures for their examination and approval, expecting the trade zone to be established officially and go into operation as soon as possible.

Meanwhile, the Provincial Department of Commerce and the Provincial Free Trade Zone Office formulated a series of supporting policy documents, including Management Measures for Henan Free Trade Zone Management and Implementation Plan for the Construction of Henan Free Trade Zone, stepped up the preparatory work for the inauguration ceremony for Henan Free Trade Zone and made good preparation in website design, the making of logos and signs and  press release, etc. The departments to be stationed in the Zhengzhou, Kaifeng and Luoyang Area Comprehensive Service Center (hall) have been determined. Currently, the working staff are receiving induction training. With all kinds of preparatory work completed, Henan Free Trade Zone can start official operation and carry out all kinds of work after obtaining the country’s formal approval.

To establish Henan Free Trade Zone is a major initiative launched by the CPC Central Committee under the new situation. As the country’s experimental field and the highland for institutional innovation, the free trade zone will accelerate innovation in government management, change the traditional government mode centering on examination and approval, especially re-approval, established the negative list system and the in-event and after-event supervision system centering on power list and responsibility list. All enterprises within the free trade zone, regardless of their size, nationality and ownership, will benefited from greater trade liberalization and facilitation. It will also attract both domestic and foreign Top 500 enterprises, enabling those devoted to entrepreneurship and business startup to enter the market more conveniently at a lower cost, thus better promoting mass entrepreneurship and business startup.

The establishment of Henan Free Trade Zone is a new mission that the CPC Central Commission assigned to Henan Province. It is also a historic breakthrough in Henan’s reform and opening-up that has far-reaching significance. Taking advantage of the free trade zone, we can better conform to the new trend of global economic and trade development, adopt more proactive opening-up strategies, cultivate new competitive edges to rise to global challenges, construct a new platform for cooperation and development, expand the new space for economic growth, accelerate the shift of government and speed up the reform of administrative system, promote the transformation of economic growth pattern and optimize the economic structure so as to push for development, reform and innovation through opening-up, form replicable and sustainable experience, quicken the steps to create a highland for inland opening-up while serving the development efforts of the whole country and revitalize the Central Plain through the rise of Henan and improve the wellbeing of local people.

III. The advance of the construction of integrated demonstration area for cross-border e-commerce

Last January, the proposal for the Henan Integrated Demonstration Area for Cross-border e-commerce was approved to become another major national development strategy implemented in our province. Marking a good start for Henan Province during the “13th-Five-Year-Plan” period. The Provincial government has set up a leading group for the Integrated Demonstration Area for trans-border e-commerce, which was headed by governor Chen Runer. The group introduced implementation schemes, held high-standard mobilizing meeting, set out working principles of basing upon Zhengzhou, making gradual step-by-step advance, unfolding in the whole province and achieving common development. It has also determined the working direction of giving priority to industrial development, focusing on increasing imports and exports and promoting B2B and standardizing the growth of B2C.

Our department gave full play to the function of the leading group, put in place a work supervision and reporting system for work, held the work promotion meeting, make overall planning and coordination to encourage innovation in institution, management and service, coordinate 200 million yuan’s financial fund to support the construction of three platforms and seven systems. We have designated 21 demonstration areas for cross-border e-commerce and 5 talent cultivation and enterprise training and incubation bases. We have signed The Cooperation Framework Agreement on the Co-construction of Cross-border E-commerce Risk Prevention and Control System. Steady progress is also being made in the construction of the cross-border e-commerce systems for financial service, smart logistics, credit management and quality safety.

At present, 50 of the 66 innovations in the implementation plan have been or soon to be carried out. Zhengzhou City took the lead in making the action plan and holding the working conference. Smooth progress has been made in 38 key promotion projects. Zhengzhou Airport has introduced a host of supportive policies for cross-border e-commerce including order-based reward, rent subsidies, export subsidies, exemption of commodity inspection fees, customs clearance platform service fee and identity authentication fee, etc. Luoyang, Nanyang, Xinxiang, Jiaozuo, Xinyang, Sanmenxia and Ruzhou have established high-profile leading organs one after another, made plans for follow-up work, set up special-purpose and increased support for the development of cross-border e-commerce. Such cities as Luoyang, Xinxiang, Anyang, Puyang, Xinyang, Kaifeng, Nanyang and Yongcheng have made the implementation plan, action plan and development plan for cross-border e-commerce.

Cross-border e-commerce is flourishing with vigor and vitality in every corner of the province. More and more traditional foreign trade enterprises and manufacturing enterprises are developing cross-border e-commerce, proved by the increase of export product categories and the expansion of overseas markets. Zhengzhou Yi Saier, among other small and medium-sized enterprises have relied on cross-border e-commerce to break barriers and realize leapfrog development, with the B2B annual export exceeding 2, 000 dollars. A number of enterprises, including Xuchang Jinfuyuan carried out network marketing through e-commerce, achieving a sales volume of 22 million dollars. In 2016, the province’s trading volume completed by cross-border e-commerce hit 11.15 billion dollars, more than double the total of the previous year. The amount of exports reached 9.492 billion dollars. In terms of the type of transaction, B2B export played a dominant role, hitting 6, 928 billion dollars, accounting for 62% of the province’s total volume of transaction completely in conformity with the national strategy of establishing the integrated demonstration area for cross-border e-commerce. Throughout the year, Zhengzhou Customs inspected and released 5, 741 B2C imports and exports through cross-border e-commerce and concluded 16.56 million export-oriented express packages for the whole province. The booming of cross-border e-commerce has promoted the transformation and upgrading of foreign trade of the whole province, mobilized the cluster development of the export industry, driven the growth of aviation economy and logistics & express, thus improving people’s living standards and meeting their personalized consumer demands.