The Ministry of Commerce studies to expand the pilot program of wholly foreign-owned hospitals to seven cities

Source: 21st century economic report Wang Shouwen, Assistant Minister of Commerce of China, said at a press conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on July 4, 2014 that the Ministry of commerce is studying and considering with relevant ministries and commissions to formulate specific measures and timetables for further opening up of China's service industry Wang Shouwen made the above statement when he was asked by the 21st century economic reporter on the same day In the Fifth China's trade policy review, which ended on July 3 the day before the World Trade Organization (WTO), WTO members expressed their concern about the market access restrictions of China's service industry For example, Wang told the 21st century economic report that the Ministry of commerce is considering allowing the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in seven cities, including Beijing and Shanghai "This is a pilot If this pilot is successful, it will be of great significance to the development of the medical industry " This is the first time that China's Ministry of Commerce has made a clear statement on whether to release wholly foreign-owned hospitals that are of special concern to the outside world, which also means that the pilot area may be beyond the scope of Shanghai free trade zone At the end of September last year, when the general plan of Shanghai pilot free trade zone was released, the State Council had said that it would allow foreign investors to establish wholly-owned general hospitals, specialized hospitals and outpatient departments in the zone The telecom industry is also considering expanding the scope of opening up Wang told 21st century economic news that joint ventures in telecommunications services have been allowed in the Shanghai free trade zone Such joint ventures can engage in data processing and trading of online e-commerce, and the upper limit of foreign ownership has been raised to 55% "Then we will study how to relax the market access of value-added telecommunications related to e-commerce outside the free trade zone." Wang added that the Ministry of commerce is also studying measures to ease foreign investment access in the advertising industry In the new "negative list" of Shanghai Free Trade Zone released on July 1, 14 standards were opened for the service industry "Before that, we also took some measures to open the road to foreign investment and delegated some examination and approval rights." At present, the proportion of China's service industry in the national economy and import and export is still low Wang said that the proportion of service industry in GDP is about 46% and that in general developed countries is about 70% Even in some developing countries, the proportion of service industry is also higher than that in China At the same time, total trade in services is half that of the United States According to the data of the WTO's China trade policy review report, the service sector only accounted for 8.7% of China's total export share last year (the global average service sector exports accounted for about 20%), accounting for 14.4% of China's import share "China also has a lot to go in terms of service exports," Wang said Expanding the opening up of service industry will also play a role in stabilizing the trade deficit of service industry According to the latest data provided by the Ministry of Commerce, China's total import and export of service trade reached 539.6 billion US dollars in 2013, while the deficit of service trade increased from 89.7 billion US dollars in 2012 to 118.5 billion US dollars in 2013 "Now, China has the largest trade deficit in services in the world," Wang said in a speech at the July 1 Review Conference Wang Shouwen, Assistant Minister of Commerce, also introduced the results of WTO members' deliberation on China's trade policy The Chinese delegation received more than 1700 questions from WTO members, and 47 members commented on China's trade policy during the two-day review conference The deliberations focused on transparency of China's economic and trade policies, consistency of policy implementation, suggestions of Shanghai Free Trade Zone, intellectual property protection and customs clearance procedures, animal and plant inspection and quarantine, etc The General Department of trade of the European Commission and the United States Trade Representative Office also expressed their concerns about China's trade policy in a statement issued on July 1 "Some concerns are inaccurate and some are misunderstandings We gave explanations and clarifications at the meeting There are also concerns that make sense For example, how to take measures to improve transparency and intellectual property rights " Wang Shouwen said in response to questions from Xinhua news agency Wang said it is in China's interest to abide by WTO rules "If everyone fails to abide by the trade policy, it is China that suffers, and Chinese enterprises that suffer." China's State Council issued a document in June that requires central ministries and local governments to abide by WTO rules when formulating trade-related policies The Ministry of Commerce has the right to assess and comment on whether these policies are compliant "This will also reduce the possibility of countries questioning our trade and reducing trade frictions," Wang said