Xiamen's business environment indicators all rated as "National Benchmark"

 Recently, sponsored by the National Development and Reform Commission, a national experience-sharing meeting for optimizing business environment was held in Suzhou. A list of benchmark cities in terms of national business environment in 2020 was released at the meeting. Xiamen was rated as "National Benchmark" in all the 18 indicators. Among them, 14 indicators made it into the top 10, including tax payment, cross-border trade, construction permit application, contract execution, protection of small and medium investors, property registration, business set-up, market regulation, access to electricity, access to water and gas, access to credit, government procurement, labor market regulation, and inclusive innovation. Tax index was ranked top three among 80 cities.

Xiamen Free Trade Digitization Promotion Center inaugurated

 On June 18, the Inauguration Ceremony of Xiamen Free Trade Digitization Promotion Center and the Seminar on High-level Digital Free Trade Pilot Zone was held at Xiamen International Shipping Center. The Promotion Center seeks common development of digital economy and aims to promote high-level digital transformation of Xiamen Free Trade Zone by uniting with various alliances. It is the first digitalized promotion center co-built by central and local governments and market-oriented operation in the province. In the future, the Promotion Center will give full play to the resource advantages of various sides involved and establish innovation laboratories and bases of all kinds for digital transformation in Xiamen. The stakeholders will jointly promote digitalized upstream and downstream industries in the pilot free trade zone, jointly strive for the implementation of national digital economy projects in Xiamen Free Trade Zone, and promote the digital and innovative development of trade in Xiamen Free Trade Zone. At present, the Promotion Center has sorted out the list of the first batch of key scenarios in the Pilot Digital Free Trade Zone.

Xiamen in good shape in investment attraction

 In 2019, there were 439 projects landed in Xiamen, with a total investment of 193.32 billion Yuan. In 2020, the number reached 8,439, with a total investment of 1.48 trillion Yuan, increased by 18.22 times and 6.66 times year-on-year. As of the end of May this year, the city has seen 4,761 projects landed with a total investment of 0.8 trillion Yuan, up 4.38 times and 3.77 times over the same period last year. In terms of using foreign investment, Xiamen continued to maintain a rapid growth. In the first five months of this year, the city's actual use of foreign investment was 10.286 billion Yuan, accounting for 56.6% of the province's total, an increase of 8.9% compared with the end of the previous year. Xiamen's investment attraction shows an obvious trend in industry chain strengthening and supplementing. It focuses on high-energy enterprises and promotes the integrative development inside and outside the island. The number and the investment amount of the tertiary industry landed projects account for about 80%. Since 2019, among the city's accumulated high-energy projects, there have been 298 world's top 500 projects and 305 China's top 500 projects.

Xiamen Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park expanded

 On the morning of June 23, Building No. 3 of Xiamen Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park was inaugurated and put into operation in Qihang Building, Huli District. At present, the total construction area of Building No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 in Xiamen Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park has reached about 137,000 square meters, so it has become a comprehensive service platform for the entire industry chain of cross-border e-commerce with a high concentration of cross-border e-commerce elements and complete service elements in Fujian Province. Xiamen is one of the third batch of cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot areas approved by the state. Xiamen Cross-border E-commerce Industrial Park is a national e-commerce demonstration base, which has attracted high-quality e-commerce platform companies including Amazon to settle and therefore has formed a complete cross-border e-commerce industry chain and ecological chain. Xiamen's cross-border e-commerce import and export volumes have subsequently increased substantially, and its share of foreign trade has remained above 20%. In 2020, Xiamen's cross-border e-commerce retail imports and exports were 2.556 billion Yuan, increasing over 4 times year on year. According to incomplete statistics, Xiamen owns more than 5,000 cross-border e-commerce companies now, which is the region with the largest number of cross-border e-commerce sellers in Fujian.

Xiamen Service Center for Foreign Professionals unveiled

 July 3 saw the official debut of Xiamen Service Center for Foreign Professionals Guanren Community Branch. It is the first community service branch for foreign talents in Xiamen, serving them with language training, cultural exchange, humanistic care and other life services. The branch's debut was also accompanied by the release of the "Welcome to Xiamen, Guide for Expats", which is Xiamen's first guide for foreign talents to work and live in the city, covering many fields such as visa, employment, entrepreneurship, medical care, education, food, leisure and entertainment. This guide is available at the arrival hall of Gaoqi International Airport and has been launched simultaneously via the "Amoyer" WeChat Mini-Program. Xiamen has been optimizing the environment for talent attraction, innovation and entrepreneurship in recent years, and has become the most attractive and potential "charming city" as perceived by foreigners. Last year, China's first linkage platform of the service center for foreign professionals and the immigration affairs service center was established in the Software Park Phase I, which facilitates the work and life of foreign talents in Xiamen.

Xiamen launches measures to boost the intelligent audio-visual industry

 This year marked the official implementation of the Several Measures for Promoting the Development of Intelligent Audio-Visual Industry jointly issued by multiple departments of Xiamen, which includes supporting and encouraging policies targeted at various links of the intelligent audio-visual industry chain, in order to push forward the industry's transformation and upgrading. The Several Measures consist of 10 policy measures for supporting and encouraging different enterprise subjects, including encouraging intelligent audio-visual enterprises to settle in Xiamen, facilitating the industry cluster development, and supporting the construction of an industrial foundation platform. Xiamen has also set up the "China (Xiamen) Intelligent Audio-Visual Industry Base" in the Software Park. Xiamen’s next step will focus on advancing the construction of this national-level network audio-visual industry base, with a view to attracting over 100 enterprises to settle in at a total output value exceeding 10 billion yuan in three years upon completion.

Xiamen designated a national supply chain innovation and application demo city

 China's Ministry of Commerce officially announced last week the designation of Xiamen and nine other cities as national supply chain innovation and application demonstration cities. Commerce representatives also announced the designation of four local firms as  demonstration enterprises -- the Linde (China) Forklift Truck Corporation, Xiamen C&D, the Xiamen ITG Group and the XMXYG Company. Program representatives said that the launch of the pilot project is intended to develop city-wide wholesale and retail industries by fostering the local supply chain and supporting supply chain enterprises.