Ma Qi Lin
Professor, Zhejiang Gongshang University Law School
Zou Mengqiu
Master student of Zhejiang Gongshang University Law School
principal items
First, the meaning and development model of business environment
Second, the priority of scientific and technological innovation in the Yangtze River Delta g60 science and technology corridor construction
Third, the development opportunity brought by the signing of rcep for the construction of g60 Science and Technology Corridor
Fourth, the main challenges faced by g60 Science and Technology Corridor in docking rcep
V. Countermeasures and suggestions for g60 Science and Technology Corridor Construction in Yangtze River Delta under the influence of rcep
As a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and mutually beneficial regional free trade agreement, the signing of rcep marks the official launch of a free trade zone covering one third of the world economy, with the largest number of members and the most potential for development, which brings opportunities and challenges to the development of China’s state-owned business environment. The construction of g60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta has made the economic development in the Yangtze River Delta region form a unique business environment model dominated by scientific and technological innovation. From the perspective of the planning and construction of g60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta, this paper analyzes the opportunities and challenges of rcep in the development of China’s state-owned business environment, and puts forward corresponding countermeasures and suggestions for the challenges.
First, the meaning and development model of business environment
A good business environment in emerging markets not only helps enterprises to carry out market-oriented economic activities, promote the effective flow of processing elements of emerging products, and promote the economic development of emerging industrial product processing enterprises, but also helps to promote the healthy and vigorous development of the socialist market economy with Chinese characteristics. Some scholars believe that the business environment consists of various important factors that may directly promote China’s rapid economic growth, such as "climate, geography, economic development policies, history and socio-economic development". At the same time, some scholars sum up the improvement of China’s business environment as the relevant laws and policies used by the state or an administrative region to promote and regulate commercial activities, and put the complexity of legal supervision process, the completeness of laws and regulations system and the transparency of local government information disclosure into the concept of business environment. At present, the most convincing business environment assessment system is the Business Environment Report issued by the World Bank. According to the comprehensive environmental assessment standard of the World Bank’s Business Environment Report, the business environment refers to "a lot of time and labor costs required by an enterprise in starting a company, applying for a construction supervision license, obtaining public electricity, registering personal property, obtaining commercial credit, paying taxes, cross-border service trade, performing contracts, handling enterprise bankruptcy and so on". In the practice of optimizing the business environment, Singapore, Hong Kong, Shenzhen, Tianjin and other regions in China have developed a unique business environment model, which has certain reference significance for optimizing the business environment of g60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta.
Singapore: Priority Mode of Rule of Law
Singapore’s public administration management policies and legal systems are relatively complete, with a sound litigation system and a better intellectual property protection system in the world, which provides a strong guarantee for the development of intellectual property rights in Singapore. A sound legal system, a fair and just judicial trial system, a law enforcement system for the people, and citizens’ good awareness of abiding by the law have formed an excellent legal environment in Singapore, which plays an important role in encouraging immigrants and introducing high-level talents. A sound and complete judicial trial system also provides a strong guarantee for the protection of citizens’ legitimate rights and interests.
Hong Kong, China: Internationalization Priority Mode
As one of the "Four Little Dragons" of Asian economic development, and a world-famous offshore financial center and free port, Hong Kong has always maintained an open and transparent business environment to promote economic activities. Hong Kong is connected with many important markets in the region. It has an absolute geographical advantage, occupies the best business stronghold and has a far-sighted international vision. As a prosperous business center in the Asia-Pacific region, Hong Kong has provided a highly secure and robust regulatory system for banking, securities and futures, insurance and retirement plans with reference to international best operating models and standards. Hong Kong’s advanced commercial infrastructure, international commercial transportation, international logistics and communication, public services for the people, municipal construction, urban management and road planning have all promoted Hong Kong to become a high-level international financial center.
Shenzhen, China: Efficiency Priority Mode
Shenzhen regards the construction of smart cities as an important starting point for deepening reform, optimizing business environment and enhancing people’s well-being, and has launched a series of reform measures to improve the efficiency of government services and market operation. The information sharing and reuse of personal electronic application license and other electronic application materials have been strengthened, and the function of "second report" (non-inductive quick application) of electronic declaration has been introduced, that is, on the basis of mutual trust, mutual use and mutual recognition of data, the application materials are directly retrieved by the application system to automatically fill in the relevant information of the application form, thus realizing the whole process of government affairs handling without meeting, zero running and full automation.
Tianjin, China: Convenience Priority Mode
Tianjin takes promoting steady economic development, improving financial service system, gathering high-tech industries, and standardizing legal operation as its development strategic goals, and taking investment convenience and trade convenience as its starting point, it actively promotes the "one-line operation" of registration matters such as enterprise start-up, change and cancellation, expands the application of electronic business licenses, and simplifies the procedures for canceling enterprises to optimize enterprise start-up services. By enhancing the convenience of online government services, improving the ability level of government services, and promoting the development of the platform of "one government, one network", the government’s government service level has been improved. By enhancing the convenience of cross-border trade, improving the convenience of enterprise financing and improving the efficiency of obtaining water and gas, we will create a dynamic market environment.
G60 Science and Technology Corridor in Yangtze River Delta: Priority Mode of Scientific and Technological Innovation
The g60 Science and Technology Corridor along the Yangtze River Delta has become one of the regions with the most vitality in China’s economic development and the highest degree of urban economy and modernization in the world. It is an economic and trade highland that promotes the change of China’s economic system and is the main driving force for implementing the development ideas in the new era and leading the construction of innovative demonstration zones. G60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta should fully absorb Singapore’s rule of law priority model, Hong Kong’s internationalization priority model, Tianjin’s convenience priority model and Shenzhen’s efficiency priority model, and give full play to its own advantages to create a business environment model featuring scientific and technological innovation on the basis of enhancing the legal protection of the business environment and improving the internationalization, convenience and efficiency of the business environment. G60 Science and Technology Corridor in Yangtze River Delta is committed to transforming traditional advantageous industries and developing high-tech industries, making full use of the advantages of industrial innovation, improving the level of scientific and technological innovation, cultivating the real economy and advanced manufacturing highlands, and providing a unique business environment for building the scientific and technological innovation center of Yangtze River Delta urban agglomeration.
Second, the priority of scientific and technological innovation in the Yangtze River Delta g60 science and technology corridor construction
As one of the regions with the fastest sustained economic development, the highest level of openness and innovation and the best independent research and development capability in China, the Yangtze River Delta region has an important position and function in the stable development pattern of the national economy. Solidly promoting the integration process of Shanghai, Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui plays an important role in promoting the high-quality economic development of the entire Yangtze River Economic Belt. Since the 13th Five-Year Plan, the construction of g60 Science and Technology Corridor has gone through the "triple jump" of version 1.0, version 2.0 and version 3.0, extending from version 1.0 of "Shanghai Songjiang Science and Technology Corridor" founded in May 2016 to version 2.0 of "Shanghai Jiahang g60 Science and Technology Corridor" and then to version 3.0 of the Yangtze River Delta g60 Science and Technology Corridor which runs through "three provinces, one city and nine cities in the Yangtze River Delta", gradually deepening the integration of the Yangtze River Delta region. Version 3.0 of g60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta has unique advantages and conditions in promoting the flow of innovation factors, Industry-University-Research cooperation, and the integration of production and city development, which is of great significance to the optimization of business environment in the Yangtze River Delta region.
Promoting the flow of innovation elements with g60 Expressway as a link
G60 Science and Technology Corridor takes g60 Expressway as the link, connecting nine cities in series, namely Shanghai, Jiaxing, Hangzhou, Jinhua, Suzhou, Huzhou, Xuancheng, Wuhu and Hefei. Based on the transportation network, it breaks down the administrative barriers among cities, so that innovative elements can flow freely among cities. Different from the previous construction of industrial parks by Shanghai enterprises in other places, g60 Science and Technology Corridor is a window for enterprises from all over the world to set up product R&D centers, product incubators and talent docking in Songjiang, while "R&D achievements and production links are transferred to Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Anhui". Due to the difference of economic development level, there is a certain gap between the innovation ability and industrial development ability of the nine cities. As the core area of the Yangtze River Delta region, Shanghai is rich in high-end science and technology resources and platform advantages, and has an international high-quality living environment, which has the advantages of attracting high-end R&D talents in medical treatment, schooling, international exchange and air transportation. Innovation is also inseparable from the support of scientific research institutions. For some prefecture-level and county-level cities in g60 Science and Technology Corridor, the level of scientific research is relatively backward, while Songjiang District is rich in talents, technology, funds, devices, institutions, projects and other elements. The establishment of g60 Science and Technology Corridor makes the advantages of science and technology resources in Songjiang University Town not only in Songjiang area, but also continuously exported to the industrial production of cities along the g60 Science and Technology Corridor, transforming academic knowledge into practical technology.
Promoting Collaborative Innovation with "Industry-University-Research Cooperation" as the Carrier
G60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta vigorously promotes multi-agent collaborative innovation of specialized science and technology service platforms, research institutes and leading enterprises, which provides an important driving force for innovation-driven and transformational development in the Yangtze River Delta region. Scientific and technological innovation needs to give full play to the subjective initiative of innovation and research subjects. g60 Science and Technology Corridor gathers high-tech industries, which requires high scientific research capabilities of enterprises. The independent research and development capabilities of enterprises along g60 Science and Technology Corridor are uneven, and the "Industry-University-Research Cooperation" model of universities, enterprises, research institutions and science and technology platforms can form a joint force of scientific and technological innovation, which effectively makes up for the shortcomings of independent research and development within enterprises. G60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor has built a "Industry-University-Research" collaborative innovation system. Colleges and universities give full play to their academic characteristics and dominant disciplines, strengthen basic research on scientific and technological innovation, carry out research and development on key technologies of industrial commonality, cultivate innovative talents, and jointly demonstrate their scientific research capabilities with research institutions and science and technology innovation platforms. Enterprises are responsible for applied research and technology development, and transform basic innovations into practical technologies to promote the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements.
The leading corridor for the integration and development of production and city
The good business environment formed by the integration of production and city is conducive to promoting technological innovation and urban construction in this region. In the process of promoting the integration of production and city development, g60 Science and Technology Corridor adheres to the concept of "science and technology, humanity and ecology" and adheres to networking, service, synergy and intelligence. Through the network to promote the spatial organization of the integrated development of production cities, relying on the networked development of big data, we will gather innovative elements and promote innovative achievements. By promoting the synergy of information resources in cities and making full use of Internet information technology, we can effectively promote the integration and sharing of information resources in cities and realize accurate and coordinated urban governance. Through the intelligentization of government information, it provides multi-level, all-field and high-quality public services for the integration of production and city, promotes the disclosure of government information, and strengthens the coordination and cooperation between departments. By improving service, we will strive to build a scientific and technological innovation system, promote industrial transformation and upgrading, adjust industrial structure, and accelerate the integration and development of manufacturing and service industries. The cities along g60 Science and Technology Corridor adhere to the matching of urban planning and industrial development, take the government as the core, guide the development of high-tech industries through the improvement of urban functions, attract high-end talents to gather, and create an emerging industrial ecology.
Third, the development opportunity brought by the signing of rcep for the construction of g60 Science and Technology Corridor
Contribute to industrial technological innovation.
As one of the most economically developed regions in China, the rent and labor costs of enterprises in the Yangtze River Delta region are rising continuously, and industrial upgrading and transfer have become one of the important directions for the development of enterprises in this region. G60 Science and Technology Corridor in Yangtze River Delta aims to build an advanced corridor from China manufacturing to China creation, and a pilot corridor of double-wheel innovation in science and technology and system. Creating innovative industrial clusters efficiently and rationalizing industrial upgrading and industrial transfer are the development directions of g60 Science and Technology Corridor. The signing of rcep will make the Asia-Pacific region become the largest unified market in the world. The rich resources and markets in the Asia-Pacific region can largely reconstruct the layout direction of China’s industrial transfer, providing more transfer directions for the industrial transfer of g60 Science and Technology Corridor. At the same time, due to the opening of the market, it is bound to bring closer technical exchanges and provide a broader platform and technical conditions for the development of technology-intensive industries. Large-scale market is an important driving force for technological innovation of enterprises. The more investment and advanced technology are used for product innovation, the more large-scale market is needed to level R&D costs and build independent brands.
Contribute to the substantial improvement of the investment environment
Rcep has made provisions on tariff reduction, technical barriers, trade aid, investment and financing, services and trade, intellectual property rights, e-commerce and technical exchange, adhered to the principle of most-favoured-nation treatment, protected the free transfer of investors’ assets, enhanced investment convenience, improved trade freedom, compensated property losses caused by trade disputes, and improved the business environment of member States. With the increasing financial and policy support of local governments along g60 Science and Technology Corridor, the business environment in the Yangtze River Delta has been improved as a whole. The signing of rcep will become an important driving force for g60 Science and Technology Innovation Corridor to further develop its technological innovation advantages, and promote the transformation and upgrading of manufacturing, financial industry, Internet economy and other industries along the corridor. At the same time, the improvement of investment freedom and convenience also makes capital flow more convenient and free. Rcep has strengthened the financial supervision rules, which is of great significance for improving the transparency of capital flows and reducing the uncertainty of trade risks.
Contribute to the reconstruction of regional value chain.
Under the realistic background of "anti-climbing repression" in the global value chain, rcep regional value chain cooperation has not only found an "alternative scheme" for China manufacturing, but also helped to play a demonstration effect. The signing of rcep will greatly change the direction of China’s industrial layout, enhance China’s international status, and break the technical restrictions and trade containment of developed countries in Europe and America. From the supply side, the huge low-cost production environment brought by the signing of rcep can effectively undertake China’s low-end manufacturing industry and provide a broad industrial transfer environment for the reconstruction of China’s regional value chain. From the demand side, the trade of semi-finished products and end products is more and more inclined to rcep internal transactions.
Help people to move freely and conveniently.
Rcep regards the standardization of cross-border movement of natural persons as a separate chapter, and promotes the cross-border movement of personnel in member countries by standardizing and simplifying visa and business visit procedures, greatly reducing the cost of personnel movement. In a word, firstly, it has expanded the consumption market of each member, which is conducive to the expansion of g60 Science and Technology Corridor market and the development of the industry. The second is to provide a cheaper labor market. G60 Science and Technology Corridor is densely populated. Although it is committed to building technology-intensive industries, it also has a huge demand for basic labor. The signing of rcep will integrate the labor in all members and transfer the labor from surplus labor areas to shortage areas. The third is to provide technical talents. The innovation of science and technology is inseparable from high-level talents. The construction of g60 Science and Technology Corridor needs a large number of high-level talents. The signing of rcep has accelerated the flow of high-tech talents and promoted the development of high-tech industries in China.
Fourth, the main challenges faced by g60 Science and Technology Corridor in docking rcep
The signing of rcep has further opened up the new pattern and space of g60 Science and Technology Corridor in the Yangtze River Delta, which is of great significance to the construction of industrial chain, supply chain and value chain in the region, and has a positive effect on the optimization of business environment in cities along the region, but it also brings some new challenges, mainly including the following points.
The challenge of industrial structure adjustment and technological innovation
The rising value chain should have corresponding cutting-edge innovative technologies. At present, rcep is in the initial stage of development after signing, and the industrial cooperation of all members has not been deepened. The specific direction of China’s industrial adjustment has not yet been determined, and the technical containment has not been alleviated. Although rcep has made provisions on technical barriers, at present, for the sake of their own interests, the management and control of talents and technologies are still strict, and the elimination of technical barriers will not happen overnight. This also means that China still needs to rely on independent innovation to achieve technological breakthroughs in the short term, and the innovative technology development of g60 Science and Technology Corridor still needs to rely on independent research and development of cities along the corridor. At the same time, due to the lack of rapid technological innovation in a short period of time, it is difficult for China’s high-end industries to develop rapidly. The liberalization and facilitation of investment brought about by the signing of rcep will lead to a large number of low-end manufacturing capital flowing to other ASEAN developing countries, which may also directly lead to the "hollowing out" trend of China’s industrial structure.
Internal structural risk
The unbalanced internal development of rcep members enables them to complement each other in economic structure and industrial layout, but this complementarity also brings certain challenges to the business environment in China. China can reconstruct the regional value chain based on rcep, which will make China’s industrial structure climb to the high end of the value chain. However, the process of value chain climbing will inevitably affect the industrial interests of established developed countries, and these countries or regions will also hinder China’s value chain climbing, thus affecting China’s industrial structural transfer and high-quality economic development. As one of the most economically developed regions, the development of g60 Science and Technology Corridor is bound to be affected, which is not conducive to the development of happy technology industry in g60 Science and Technology Corridor. At the same time, as a low-end industrial chain, Southeast Asian countries are also committed to restructuring the regional value chain, and its rising regional value chain will also affect China’s industrial interests and hit China’s low-end manufacturing industry.
External competitive risk
Asia-Pacific economies have built most of the global free trade agreements, and also covered the central region of rcep. Because there are some differences in system and ideology among rcep members, even if countries can still reach an agreement on interest integration at present, the stability of the agreement is still uncertain. Even if the United States has not joined rcep, its influence on some signatories of rcep should not be underestimated. Once China’s high-quality economic development affects the interests of the United States in the Asia-Pacific region, it will use this influence to undermine rcep’s trade agreements. More importantly, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Vietnam and Malaysia, which are members of rcep, are also members of cptpp. The disproportionate and complicated international trade agreements often have the risk of "spaghetti bowl" at the same time, that is, complex free trade rules and initiative standards may cause the trade burden of the corresponding members, and may also restrict the in-depth cooperation among the members.
V. Countermeasures and suggestions for g60 Science and Technology Corridor Construction in Yangtze River Delta under the influence of rcep
The signing of rcep not only brings opportunities to g60 Science and Technology Corridor in Yangtze River Delta, but also brings certain challenges. In order to better cope with the challenges and seize the opportunities, we should make a concrete analysis of specific issues.
Broaden the path of innovation and accelerate the reconstruction of regional value chain
Broadening the innovation path, improving the independent innovation ability of enterprises and accelerating the reconstruction of regional value chain are the keys to seize opportunities and meet challenges. First of all, g60 Science and Technology Corridor should open the market of high-tech products more actively, eliminate trade monopoly, actively introduce high-tech products from other developed countries in the agreement, and provide convenient conditions for the flow of innovation factors. Secondly, give full play to the synergy of g60 Science and Technology Corridor in Industry-University-Research, introduce enterprise R&D centers to promote the industrialization of scientific and technological innovation achievements, and gather high-tech enterprises and enterprise R&D centers to promote the industrialization of scientific and technological achievements. In addition, g60 Science and Technology Corridor should aim at the world’s advanced technology, firmly grasp industrial innovation, focus on building new energy vehicles, new finance, artificial intelligence creation, life sciences and other technical industries, and guide the direction of regional and even world industrial chain and value chain reconstruction.
Practice the concept of community of human destiny and deal with internal structural risks through win-win cooperation.
What the community of human destiny shows is a world of "lasting peace, universal security, common prosperity, development tolerance and common beauty". In the development of high-end industries, China, Japan and South Korea can aim at "common prosperity" and "openness and tolerance" and refine their cooperation in industrial division, that is, they can divide their industries in different segments of the same industry, and China can provide regional markets, and countries such as Japan and South Korea can provide technical support. Building a community of human interests peacefully takes the pursuit of national interests as the primary goal, taking into account the reasonable interests and concerns of other countries, and promoting common prosperity and harmonious development through mutual cooperation and mutual benefit and win-win in the process of exploring the path of common development between China and other countries. G60 Science and Technology Corridor should pay attention to the coordinated development of industrial transfer while transferring high-end industries, and at the same time open the corresponding regional markets.
Smooth the domestic circulation and build local brands to cope with external competitive risks
While adhering to the basic position and principle of high-quality and high-level opening up, China should pay more attention to tapping the potential of domestic demand, adhere to the domestic and international dual-cycle system, and take the domestic economic cycle as the main body. Under the background of the rise of trade doctrine and the shrinking of global market, it is particularly important to tap domestic demand and establish a huge and dynamic internal consumer market. The signing of rcep plays a significant role in improving the domestic business environment. At the same time, under the favorable policy situation, it has obvious advantages to actively build a unified and stable domestic market, and it also plays an important role in reducing the circulation cost and transaction cost of the domestic market. G60 Science and Technology Corridor should form a unique regional development advantage, make full use of the vast domestic market to achieve economies of scale, reduce production costs, build local brands with international competitiveness, and weaken the threat of external competitiveness.
Shangguan number author: Shanghai Law Society