Hu Kaihong:Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon! Welcome to the press conference of the State Council Information Office. In May 2015, the State Council approved Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector, and then Beijing became the first pilot city. Now this pilot program is going well; in order to help you understand relevant situations, today we are pleased to invite the Assistant Minister of the Ministry of Commerce Mr. Liu Haiquan and deputy mayor of Beijing Ms. Cheng Hong. They will introduce relevant situations related to Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector and answer your questions. Next, please the Assistant Minister Liu firstly makes an introduction.

Liu Haiquan:Media friends, Good afternoon! In May this year, the State Council approved Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in the service sector. After several months of work, according to the unified deployment of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce has formulated the Implementing Proposal for Beijing's Pilot Program for Wider Opening-up in Service Sector. I will take this opportunity to introduce the situations related to the pilot program on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce.

Expanding opening-up in the service sector is of great significance to the overall reform and opening-up of China. The service sector is a key area for opening up at present and in the coming period, and an important support for stabilizing growth, adjusting structure, promoting reform and improving people's livelihood. Compared with manufacturing sector, the development status and particularity of the service sector determine that we need to firstly carry out pilot programs for opening-up in the service sector in certain areas and within certain limits to work out replicable and referential experience, and then gradually promote the opening-up in the service sector throughout the country in a solid and secure manner. Beijing's wider opening-up in the service sector, four pilot free trade zones and the liberalization of trade in services among Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao will together form a multi-level, wide-area, large-scale pilot pattern of opening-up in the service sector, which will be conducive to the multi-level exploration of methods for opening the service sector and figuring out more replicable and propagable experience.

I. Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in the service sector has clear objectives and great significance
The development goals of the pilot program for wider opening-up in the service sector carried out in Beijing are, through active exploration of three years and by easing market access, reforming the supervision model and optimizing market environment, striving to form a new pattern of wider opening-up in the service sector in Beijing in line with international standards, accumulating the experience that can be replicated and promoted across the country, and making the pilot program for wider opening-up in the service sector become the important practice of national all-around and active opening-up. The pilot program is not to form a policy depression, but to build a highland for innovation in institutions, mechanisms and systems, establish auxiliary supporting systems by reforming market access mechanism and supervision model, and establish and improve promotion systems for service sector, thus driving the overall transformation and upgrading of Beijing's service sector. With the pilot program for wider opening-up, great efforts will be made to actively resolve deep-rooted contradictions in the development of Beijing's service sector, vigorously develop service economy, knowledge economy and green economy, and accelerate the construction of high-grade, precision and advanced economic structure, which may be conducive to the achievement of industrial substitution and upgrading in the capital and the establishment of industrial system adapted to core functions of the capital. As for Beijing, the significance is optimizing core functions of the capital; as for the whole country, the significance is serving the national strategy of coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. The Plan for Coordinated Development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region defines functions of Beijing as national political center, cultural center, international exchange center and science and technology innovation center, and the industrial development of Beijing will highlight high end, service, convergence, amalgamation and low carbon. The pilot program for wider opening-up in the service sector will give full play to comparative advantages of Beijing's service sector in development, further optimize core functions of the capital, facilitate the basic formation of regional integration pattern, and make regional economic structure more reasonable, enabling the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region to play a more significant role in leading and supporting national economic and social development.

II. Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector has wider scope and more contents

Compared with the opening-up in service sector in four pilot free trade zone, Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector is the first pilot program carried out within the scope of municipal economy, with a wider regional coverage scope, a higher concentration degree of pilot industry, and more perfect auxiliary supporting systems.

First, form the "6 + 1" pattern of wider opening-up. "6" mainly focuses on six key service areas, namely science and technology, internet and information, culture and education, finance, business and tourism, health and medical care, which will be gradually opened to all kinds of capital by reducing or cancelling limits on proportion of foreign equity and relaxing restrictions on business qualifications and business scope in part or in whole, in a bid to realize the diversification of investment subjects, promote reform and development with opening-up and accelerate the upgrading and updating of Beijing's service sector. "1" refers to deepening the reform of overseas investment management system; mainly through the implementation of "filing system" and other management innovations, efforts are made to help local enterprises actively develop international market and quicken their pace of "going out", with the purposes of giving better play to advantages of two markets and two resources, broadening the development space for local enterprises, and enhancing international competitiveness. "6" is aimed at "bringing in" and "1" is based on "going out", embodying the characteristics of two-way opening-up. Second, optimize five auxiliary supporting systems, and provide effective guarantee for opening-up mainly by innovating institutions and mechanisms, changing modes of government supervision and service, establishing a scientific and standardized, efficient and transparent promotion system for service sector, and constructing an international, market-oriented and legal business environment.

The Ministry of Commerce pays high attention to Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector. With great support from relevant departments, the Ministry of Commerce has, in concert with Beijing Municipality, rapidly formulated the Implementing Proposal for the pilot program, established a cooperation mechanism, and specified policy measures and task lists. Next, we will, in accordance with the unified deployment of the State Council, speed up the implementation and effective working of reform and opening-up measures as soon as possible, coordinate relevant departments to introduce more "practical measures" and "effective measures" within the three-year pilot period, and create replicable and propagable experience for opening-up in national service sector.

Thank you!

Hu Kaihong:Thank you, Assistant Minister Liu! Next, please deputy mayor Cheng Hong makes an introduction.

Cheng Hong:Media friends, good afternoon! I take this opportunity to express our thanks to the Ministry of Commerce and other central ministries and commissions for their guidance and support for Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector, and we are also grateful to media friends for your attention to and support for Beijing. Today I want to introduce the situations in three aspects.

Firstly, carrying out the pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector is both a glorious task assigned by the country to Beijing and a major opportunity for economic restructuring in the capital. In other words, how we look at this issue.

In May this year, the State Council officially approved the Overall Proposal on Beijing's Pilot Program for Wider Opening-up in Service Sector, and then Beijing became the first and currently only one pilot city for opening-up in the service sector. Actually, this is from 2012. As known to some media friends may know, in 2012, the State Council decided to hold China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services in Beijing, and create an international platform for promoting trade in services. After that, in terms of opening-up, the State Council also gave an important and glorious task to Beijing. All hose fully reflects the care and support of the State Council for Beijing's work. As what Mr. Liu Haiquan just talked about, this decision on carrying out the pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector in Beijing, in our opinion, not only is aimed at the overall situation of national opening-up and economic development and is a new emphasis of wider opening-up under the new normal, but also considers actual conditions of economic development in the capital. Beijing is selected by the country for carrying out the pilot program, which also fully shows China's firm determination in opening-up.

Beijing, as the capital, has certain characteristics in economy, for example, after many years of work, Beijing forms the adjustment and upgrade of industrial structure and the service-dominant economy. By last year, the added value of our service sector has exceeded RMB1.6 trillion, accounting for about 78%of GDP; however, what I want to tell media friends is that this figure has been updated by the first half of this year. The service sector accounted for 80% in four aspects: the added value accounted for over 80% of GDP; for the rate of our contributions made to growth, the service sector occupied more than 80%; in terms of tax revenue, the service sector took up more than 80%; with regard to foreign capital we introduce, the proportion of service sector has exceeded 80%. This figure is 30% more than the national average. However, we also know that the development of Beijing's service sector needs to be further improved; in particular, the labor productivity shall be raised and the transformation and upgrading shall be further accelerated to meet the needs of our economic development and the needs of improving the living of citizens. So, the State Council decided to conduct the pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector in Beijing. In fact, the pilot program aims to drive the reform through opening-up and optimize the environment with the reform, and then stimulate the vitality of the market and accelerate the upgrading and development of service sector in the capital.

For Beijing, this pilot program we carry out is actually a strategic work for better implementing the spirits of the important speech made by the General Secretary Xi Jinping during visiting Beijing, speeding up the implementation of functional orientation of the capital, accelerating the construction of Beijing into "four centers" and a world-class harmonious and livable capital, and propelling the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. This is an important exploration for the establishment of a new open economy system, is conducive to promoting Beijing's service sector to develop towards high end, agglomeration and internationalization, and will accumulate experience for the country to comprehensively deepen the reform, expand all-round active opening-up, and take more initiative to integrate in the global economy. It is a glorious task assigned by the country and a major opportunity for deepening the reform of economic system in Beijing and facilitating economic restructuring and upgrading. Indeed, we shoulder heavy responsibilities and glorious mission.

Secondly, I want to introduce some characteristics of Beijing's pilot program for wider opening-up in service sector. As introduced by Mr. Liu Haiquan, Beijing's pilot program, same as that carried out in other four pilot free trade zones, is a new exploration for wider opening-up at the national level, so we have similarities with some pilot cities in the pilot free trade zone, but have some unique characteristics, mainly including the following three aspects:

First, highlight the reform of institutions and mechanisms. As described by Mr. Liu Haiquan, the pilot program we conduct is not to form policy depression, but form reform Highland. So, both in the design process and in the future implementation process, the pilot program always tightly focuses on the reform of institutions and mechanisms. Essentially, we implement such a guiding ideology, namely driving reform with opening-up, optimize environment with reform, and stimulate vitality with excellent environment, so that two markets and two resources will be further activated to accelerate the reform and development of service sector. Expanding opening-up is the precursor, while the reform of institutions and mechanism is the core. Based on the problem orientation, we have visited and discussed with many enterprises and held six or seven symposia to understand the current opening-up in Beijing, especially core problems in terms of opening-up in service sector that urgently need to addressed. Finally, the problems put forward concentrate in five areas: the first is problems about social credit; the second is problems about market supervision mode; the third is problems in the process of high-level talent introduction, the fourth is problems about financial security support; and the fifth is problems about clearance facilitation. So, in the pilot program carried out in Beijing, in addition to lifting the control over industry access, the core is the reform of institutions and mechanisms in these five areas, and great efforts are made to form an international, legal and transparent promotion system for service sector, establish and perfect with institutions and mechanisms with Chinese characteristics, characteristics of the capital and characteristic of the times, and do something for the country in exploring a new open economic system.

Second, the pilot program is oriented towards the whole city, breaking the limit of smaller regional scope. We consider that the service sector is entirely different from manufacturing sector and is featured with intangibility and integrated production and consumption as well as supply and demand. So, in the course of determining the pilot program in Beijing, we conduct the pilot program in six key areas in line with the principle of integrality, which is conducive to breaking the limit of smaller regional scope and better conforms to internal rules of service sector and trade in services. We also think such a pilot program is closer to actual operation situations related to the service sector, and in the case of relative conformance to actual situations, a number of realistic innovative measures in management and services may be found out. This is our starting point for the application for pilot program, proposal design and proposal implementation.

Third, focus on key areas. The pilot program selects six key areas for expanding opening-up. These six areas are industries and areas in which Beijing has certain comparative advantages and that are in line with the strategic focus of China's opening-up and the strategic functional orientation of the capital, are in urgent need on the market and have larger market potential. Some areas, such as finance, science and technology, internet and information services, belong to producer services. Meanwhile, some areas, such as culture and education, medical care and tourism, are closely related to the living of our common people. Selecting these six areas to carry out the pilot program, on the one hand, is good for speeding up the establishment of high-grade, precision and advanced economic structure as well as the transformation and upgrading, and on the other hand, help improve the service guarantee capability of the whole city and the quality of living services of the city, and accelerate the construction of Beijing into a world-class harmonious and livable city according to the requirements of the General Secretary. The six areas are screened for several times and then determined finally.

Next, the preliminary work and current promotion situation are described.

Upon approval of the Overall Proposal in May, the State Council has been attaching great importance, and held thematic coordination meetings concerning some major issues. The central ministries and commissions such as the Ministry of Commerce have provided great supports, guaranteeing the current smooth work progress. Since May, we have made some progresses in three aspects: organizational guarantee, issue of implementation plan and the promulgation of the first opening measures, which are described as below:

Firstly, the organizational guarantee has been consolidated. The Ministry of Commerce and Beijing Municipality have jointly established a ministry-municipality cooperation leading group for wider opening-up in service sector, which have coordinated about some major issues under the leadership of the minister of the Ministry of Commerce and mayor of Beijing Municipality. Beijing Municipality has established a leading group and office. The leading group is headed by the mayor, and is composed of 55 relevant departments and units in Beijing Municipality. Meanwhile, 15 experts have been engaged to constitute an expert consultation committee under the leading group of Beijing Municipality. These experts are equally from political circle, business circle and academic circle, and include several famous entrepreneurs, who have given us some valuable opinions and suggestions.

Secondly, the Implementing Proposal has been studied and issued. The Overall Proposal approved by the State Council has a large scope, focuses on general and principled requirements. The Overall Proposal should be specialized and defined, and be evolved into an operable Implementing Proposal. Therefore, we have spent several months in formulating and issuing the Implementing Proposal. We should cherish the pilot opportunity of expansion of opening-up, and boost the pilot work with a pragmatic attitude, which are also determined by the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee and Beijing Municipal People's Government. The issues are ones which the business circle and the society pay much attention to and the media are concerned about. Therefore, the press conference is held not immediately but several months after the approval by the State Council. In the process of formulating the Implementing Proposal, we have sought opinions of many parties, and then sought the opinions of relevant ministries and commissions of the State, finally forming the Implementing Proposal. The Implementing Proposal includes five parts: general ideas, pilot principles, main objectives and steps, main tasks and measures and guarantee measures. The Implementing Proposal specifies 141 tasks. The Implementing Proposal was studied and discussed and passed the deliberation at the executive meeting of Beijing Municipal People’s Government and by the standing committee of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee on July 20 and 22 respectively. On September 13, the Ministry of Commerce and Beijing Municipality jointly issued and printed the Implementing Proposal. Yesterday, the Ministry of Commerce and Beijing Municipality jointly convened a mobilization and deployment meeting, at which Guo Jinlong, member of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau and secretary of the CPC Beijing Municipal Committee, and Minister of the Ministry of Commerce Gao Hucheng put forward specific requirements. Subjects of responsibilities for 141 specific measures of the reform and opening-up have been determined according to the work division of departments. In the three-year pilot period, such measures will be implemented step by step.

Thirdly, the first pilot measures have been taken. Since implementation, such measures have made some preliminary effects. We know that powers of many opening-up matters belong to the Central Government. If the powers of some matters belong to the Central Government, we have actively sought supports from the State Council and relevant ministries and commissions, while doing work under the framework of the Overall Proposal. For example, the 11 measures already submitted entail temporary adjustments to relevant administrative regulations of Beijing Municipality, documents of the State Council and rules and normative documents of relevant departments of the State Council. Some parties have agreed about the adjustments at present, and will give us an official reply recently. With regard to some matters not forbidden lawfully, only if they conform to our opening-up direction and the functional orientation of the capital, we will actively and bravely speed up the reform and opening-up. In particular, if powers of some matters belong to Beijing Municipality, we will speed up releasing contents about local government administration and services.

In the four months, preliminary progresses and effects have been made in the “6+1+5” aspects. Further measures have been taken in some of the six fields of the opening-up. For example, in the scientific and technological service field, domestic capital has been guided and encouraged to cooperate with overseas capital to establish innovation and entrepreneurial incubation platforms in Beijing Municipality, and actively cooperation has been made with foreign-funded enterprises such as Microsoft in jointly establishing the group innovation space. After introduction, some advanced overseas philosophies and methods in respect of entrepreneurial incubation are quite favorable for enhancing the incubation capacity of innovative incubators. Up to now, thousands of enterprises have been under incubation. Additionally, we know in the scientific and technological service industry, a very important issue is the introduction of talents. In respect of talent intermediaries, Zhongguancun Demonstration Zone has broken through previous restrictions. In the past, the equity percentage of a foreign partner in a Sino-foreign joint venture talent intermediary was controlled strictly. Now, we raise it to 70%.

In respect of the technical service field, take civil aviation for example. Currently, Beijing Capital International Airport is the second busiest airport in the world, next to Atlanta International Airport of the USA. It records very dense flights and a large number of aviation maintenance businesses. We will cancel the previous restriction of holding by the Chinese party to a foreign-invested airplane maintenance project.

Regarding tourism, we will support Sino-foreign joint venture travel agencies established in Beijing and meeting conditions to engage in the outbound tourism business other than that in Taiwan. In recent years, the outbound tourism has been developing fast in China, with the annual growth more than 30%. Last year, more than 4.2 million people travelled abroad. In terms of meeting consumer demands, we allow Sino-foreign joint venture travel agencies to conduct some relevant business in Beijing Municipality. On July 1, we, under the supports of departments such as the State Administration of Taxation and the China National Tourism Administration, firstly conducted pilot departure tax refund for shopping of overseas tourists at the refund rate of 11%, which made the international tourism environment in Beijing Municipality closer to that in international advanced cities. At Terminal T3, self-service customs clearance business is provided for business tourists. Under the overall framework of the opening-up of service industry, these are some measures taken in a timely way.

In respect of health and medical treatment field, the first agreement on medical cooperation in the franchising way was concluded by and between Beijing Anzhen Hospital and China Orient Asset Management Corporation in July. The reform of the franchising medical cooperation between large public hospitals and social capital will be conducted. As for the reform of the franchising medical cooperation, detailed measures will be issued before the end of this year. The examination and approval procedures of medicine practice registration for doctors including physical ones will be further simplified in such ways as of electronic registration.

In terms of the reform of foreign investment management system, we will further speed up optimizing the service administration of local government. In the past decade, the foreign investment of Beijing Municipality rose by 33 times, with the average growth of 67% in the recent five years. We are speeding up doing the work to serve enterprises “going out” well. We have changed approval system into filing system for overseas investment, and will start paperless filing in October so as to facilitate enterprises. In the meantime, we have delegated power to the lower levels to entrust relevant districts and counties to conduct relevant examination and approval. We have reinforced supports for the financing of enterprises “going out” in Beijing Municipality by virtue of foreign economy and trade development guidance funds and foreign economy and trade guarantee service platforms in Beijing Municipality. We are selecting relevant custodian banks and fund custodian institutions.

In terms of supporting systems, progresses are obvious. We are about to implement the integration of “five certificates” in Beijing Municipality in September, which will facilitate enterprises in terms of the reform of commercial systems, and will intensify the application of enterprise credit information system to consolidate interim and ex post regulation. The authority of registration examination and approval for foreign-invested enterprises has been reformed since July. Nearby handling and cross-district registration have been implemented. Except that the foreign-invested enterprises approved by Beijing Municipal Commission of Commerce should be registered with Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce, other foreign-invested enterprises may directly handle relevant formalities with branches of Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce. For more than a month, more than 500 foreign-invested enterprises newly established have conducted nearby registration. Besides, we will study and issue convenient methods of cross-district registration in the second half of the year. In order to enhance customs clearance facilitation, we will provide package customs clearance services nationwide for headquarters in Beijing Municipality. At present, 9 headquarters have established a normalized mechanism, and a perfect implementation scheme will be formed in the year. Under the supports of General Administration of Customs, we are speeding up doing relevant work.

The above are some work progresses and preliminary effects that have been made in more than 4 months after the approval of the Overall Proposal by the State Council. We will, under the supports of central ministries and commissions such as the Ministry of Commerce, speed up taking more opening-up measures. We deeply know that the wider opening-up in the service sector involves many industries in Beijing Municipality, and is a huge and complicated systematic engineering. We will, as required in the approval of the State Council, deeply boost pilot expanding by closely relying on the supports and guidance of central ministries and commissions such as the Ministry of Commerce. We should seek the good opportunities in the three-year pilot period to deepen reform and expand opening-up, make efforts to form an international, legal and transparent service sector promoting system, establish an internationally compatible new pattern of the wider opening-up in the service sector, enhance the overall opening-up and development levels in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei Region, form reproducible and propagable experience, and make contributions due for a pilot city to establishing China’s all-round active opening-up new pattern and a new system of open economy.

That's all. Thank you.

Hu Kaihong:Thanks for the detailed information, Ms. Cheng. Now it's time for questions. Please give the name of your news agency before raising a question.

CCTV:Mr. Liu, as it's a major national strategy to promote the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei regions now, what role does this pilot program play in the coordinated Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei development? Can we expect that some pilot policies, measures and managerial experience will be popularized in the Beijing,-Tianjin-Hebei region first?

Liu Haiquan:As you know, after the third plenary session of the 18th CPC Central Committee, three key strategies for regional development were proposed at the state level, namely, the “One Belt and One Road" strategy, the Yangtze River Economic Belt strategy, and the strategy of promoting coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. Beijing is chosen to carry out this pilot program for expanding the opening-up of service sector. This, in my opinion, considers the needs of both Beijing’s development and the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region, as we know one problem in China's regional development is that different regions adopt identical economic structures and are faced with homogeneous competition. The central government put forward in the guidelines for the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region that the overall target for this region is to build itself into a world-class urban agglomeration with Beijing as the center, a leading area in integrated regional development, a new engine in the innovation-driven economic growth nationwide, and a demonstration area for ecological restoration and environmental improvement. This is the position of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region in the country in the near future.

In this region, Beijing enjoys a rather peculiar position. As you know, it functions as four centers, namely, the political, cultural, international exchange and technological innovation centers. To perform its functions well, Beijing has done a lot of work according to the instructions of the Secretary General. You might be impressed by the current functional dispersal, as a number of industries that consume many resources and occupy much land, with the manufacturing industry in particular, have been transferred to Hebei and surrounding areas. So, to support Beijing's role as four centers in the future, what are the areas we shall develop? I think this pilot program has given an answer: modern service sector is the best choice. In this pilot program, Beijing will open up wider in six high-end areas of the service sector. We hope Beijing's pilot program will provide experience for the opening-up of service sector throughout the country and facilitate high-end service areas in Beijing. In addition to boosting Beijing's development, the growth of its high-end service areas, in my opinion, will also help form differentiated, coordinated and sustainable economic structures in Hebei and Tianjin.

Second, the service sector has a striking feature that it's easy to conduct cross-regional operations. In addition to serving Beijing, the high-end service areas in the city will benefit Tianjin and Hebei as well, and thus lead the development of the service sector in the whole region.

Third, in the Proposal we've also suggested that some replicable experience should be summarized from the pilot reform program. Such experience, of course, will be reproduced and popularized in Tianjin and Hebei first. Based on the above considerations, Beijing's pilot program to open up the service sector wider will play a significant positive role in achieving the coordinated development of Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region.

China News Service:You just mentioned that there are favorable conditions for the opening-up in Beijing and the service sector has already taken the dominant position. Can you give any detained information of those favorable conditions?

Cheng Hong:As I've just mentioned, the State Council's choice of Beijing to carry out the pilot program for opening up the service sector, is related somewhat to Beijing's positioning and qualifications. We can illustrate Beijing's foundations to carry out the pilot program in the following three aspects.

First, Beijing has a typical economy featuring the dominance of service sector. Just now I used figures to explain this situation that the service sector has become the pillar of the overall economic development in Beijing. In other words, the service sector is more developed in Beijing, as the divisions and forms of the service sector are relatively complete and in sound development, with many aspects in line with international practices. Against such a backdrop, the pilot program to be carried out in Beijing as a whole will help us better understand the effects of further opening-up of the service sector, whether there will be any relevant risks, and how the government management and services can be more practical and effective as well as in line with international practices. I believe Beijing is more representative for carrying out the pilot program and will act better in compliance with the international practices in the future.

Second, the service market in Beijing is attractive and competitive in the world. Beijing's pilot program can draw considerable international responses. As I've mentioned, this city has a quite high demand for services. Its producer services are relatively mature, and many global leading accounting and law firms have business and subsidiaries here. This is out of the demands of Beijing to develop its own market as well as certain needs for the development of regional and national market. For example, our financial institutions and intermediaries have customers around the country. This is related to the fact that Beijing is the capital of China. So this city's producer services are quite attractive. On the other hand, the consumer services in this city set some more diverse requirements in compliance with international standards. Now we're on the way of opening-up. Beijing, as an important international exchange center, has seated headquarters, R&D institutes or settlement centers of thousands of multinational companies. Therefore, this city has quite typical demands for trade in services.

Moreover, we can see from the situations over the past years, foreign investors have shown much concern about the service market in Beijing. There has been steady growth in our use of foreign investment for years, especially in the service sector. This indicates that foreign investors still have much interest in the consumer market of Beijing. So our further opening-up remains attractive to them. In addition, Beijing ranks higher than many other cities in the country in terms of trade in services. By 2014, the total scale of trade in services of the city had exceeded USD110 billion, accounting for about one fifth of the national scale. What's more important, Beijing took up quite a large share in those emerging sectors such as communications services, and patent licensing and royalties. Above all, the service market in Beijing has its own attractiveness, and is also internationally competitive. From this point, it is appropriate to choose Beijing to carry out the pilot program.

Third, we have foundations in the reform and development of service sector. In 2010, the National Development and Reform Commission determined Shijingshan District as one of the pilot areas to carry out integrative reform on the service sector.
In 2011, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology approved the pilot program of Zhongguancun Science Park to modernize the service sector. Those experiments done in certain districts and fields have laid a good foundation for us to carry out the pilot program for further opening up the entire service sector. There is another advantage - China Beijing International Fair for Trade in Services, also known as the Beijing Fair. It has been held for three consecutive years under the support of the State Council. Now it enjoys significant rise in reputation, and a pattern of Canton Fair for trade in goods and Beijing Fair for trade in services has been taking shape.

In conclusion, considering the composition of Beijing's industrial structure, the international market and the foundations for the pilot program, we think Beijing has the favorable conditions for the opening-up and is the right city to carry out the pilot program.

Beijing Daily:Ms. Cheng, after this pilot program starts, what kind of problems and difficulties may arise in the course of implementation? What measures will we take to solve those problems and difficulties? Could you give your response? Thank you.

Cheng Hong:To expand the opening-up is to deepen the reform. As a pilot city, Beijing will definitely meet with many difficulties and obstacles during the reform. However, just as I've mentioned, this pilot program involves not only the reform and opening-up of Beijing, but also the critical moves of the country to open up wider to the world. We should have strong sense of responsibility to overcome those difficulties, and be innovative, active and enterprising. As I've mentioned, we have deeply felt the toughness of this pilot program, as we have to make breakthroughs in policies, management and services. But we have the direction, and over the past months - only about four months, we have felt under the framework of the approved Overall Proposal, there is the support from the State Council and its ministries and commissions, as well the firm leadership of the municipal Party committee and municipal government. We can break new grounds. In four months - such a short period, some new measures have been launched in the areas I've mentioned, with preliminary results achieved.

Next, we will continue to win support from the central government and the relevant ministries and commissions for our innovative policies and actions. What's more important, we'll focus on expediting the innovation in our own management and services. In particular, for those services that can be directly provided by the municipal government as I've just mentioned, we will try our best to optimize our services in line with international standards or the highest standards in the country.

Xinhua News Agency:As mentioned by you and Mr. Liu just now, for opening-up measures, Beijing will dynamically adjust and enrich the list for the opening-up of service sector, and the list will gradually cover new business forms. Ms. Cheng, would you please give some details in this respect? In addition, Beijing has done some preliminary work, such as formulation of the action plan to promote the quality of consumer services. Would you also briefly explain this plan and the considerations for the following development of consumer services and producer services? Thank you.

Cheng Hong:Thanks for your careful reading of our Proposal. In those selected six areas, we have indeed made coordination of producer services and consumer services, and this is different from the aspects of opening-up we've focused on in the past. For example, the market for consumer services was open to a higher level, but in the actual cooperation with foreign investment, we found there is still more room to open. Therefore, to put the Overall Proposal in place, in June, the municipal Party committee and municipal government officially adopted the three-year action plan to promote the quality of consumer services in Beijing. The plan mainly involves the areas the public concerns about much and closely related to our daily life, covering a wide range of trades from those traditional ones like retail, wholesale and catering services to some new forms including elderly and training services.

In addition, we pay much more attention to the role of service consumption in the entire consumption system. As you know, there is a scientific saying that the service consumption will account for increasingly more part along with the improvement of living standard. According to Beijing's statistics, service consumption has taken up around 40% compared to other types of consumption, and nearly 70% of Beijing's GDP growth is attributable to consumption. With a view to stabilizing the growth, stimulating the consumption, deepening the reform and expanding the opening-up, we issued this Proposal. We hope to coordinate the international and domestic markets and promote the quality of our consumer services as soon as possible. The core of our ideas is to improve the quality of consumer services, the quality of our urban life, and the capability of Beijing to provide service support, in order to build the city into a world-class livable place, and facilitate the city's performance of its functions as the capital of China.

Hu Kaihong:This concludes today's conference. Thank you!

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