Head of the Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce interprets the policy document on supporting the comprehensive pilot demonstration of the expansion of national service industry opening up, standardizing the construction of leading cities and provinces.

Recently, the person in charge of the Foreign Investment Division of the Ministry of Commerce interpreted the policy document for supporting the comprehensive pilot demonstration of provinces and cities in promoting the standardization construction of national service industry opening up. Recently, with the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Market Regulation jointly issued the "Opinions on Supporting the Comprehensive Measures for Promoting the Systematic Opening of the National Service Industry Pilot Demonstration Province and City Standardization Construction" (referred to as the "Opinions") and the "Work Task List (First Batch) for the Revision and Related Work Tasks of National Service Industry Opening Up Demonstration Provinces and Cities" (referred to as the "Work Task List"), to promote the standardization construction in the pilot demonstration provinces and cities for the opening up of the national service industry. The person in charge of the Foreign Investment Division of the Ministry of Commerce interpreted the above-mentioned documents. 1. Background of the Issuance of the "Opinions" The pilot demonstration of the comprehensive opening up of the national service industry is a major opening-up initiative of the Central Committee and the State Council. It is currently being implemented in 11 provinces and cities nationwide, and its leading role in promoting the opening-up and development of the national service industry is becoming increasingly apparent. Standards, as an important content of institutional opening-up and an important support for the construction of a modern industrial system, are emerging as a new area of work for pilot demonstrations. Promoting the standardization construction in pilot demonstration provinces and cities will help to play the leading role of pilot demonstrations, strengthen the coordination and interaction between departments and localities, government and market, increase standards supply in multiple levels and fields, and promote the development of China's service industry through institutional construction; it will help to grasp the trends of global industrial transformation and the reconstruction of international economic and trade rules, lead innovation with standard setting, explore new development areas, and grasp the initiative of development; it will help to be closer to the practice of trade and investment work, facilitate the entry and deepening of foreign-invested enterprises into the Chinese market, and promote international cooperation in industrial chain and supply chain. The Third Plenary Session of the Twentieth Central Committee of the Communist Party of China clearly stated to "promote the pilot demonstration of the opening up of the service industry" and deploy to "promote the standardization construction of the service industry." The Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Market Regulation have carefully studied and implemented the spirit of the plenary session, further strengthened the coordination and mutual promotion of the pilot demonstration and standardization construction work, formulated and submitted relevant policy documents based on in-depth research and demonstration. 22 central and state organs participated deeply in policy research and provided constructive suggestions from multiple perspectives. The pilot demonstration provinces and cities took the initiative to assume responsibilities, actively claimed work tasks, and enriched the content of the policy documents. 2. Main Contents Based on the spirit of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China and the Third Plenary Session of the Twentieth Central Committee and the series of deployment plans to further comprehensively deepen reforms and promote the strategic deployment of China's modernization, the "Opinions" propose overall requirements and related organizational guarantees for pilot demonstration provinces and cities to carry out standardization construction in an advanced manner. They outline 17 key tasks in four aspects. Firstly, serving the national strategy and the overall economic and social situation. Revise the standards of bulk consumer goods such as home appliances, home products, consumer electronics, and recycled resources, support equipment renewal, and trade-in of old products. Revise standards in the field of accommodation, catering, elderly care, childcare, and other lifestyle services to promote the improvement and expansion of service consumption. Improve the standard system of emerging industries such as new-generation information technology, artificial intelligence, commercial aerospace, and low-altitude economy, accelerate the application of technological innovation achievements. Explore the formulation of standards for environmental, social, and governance (ESG) evaluations to promote green and low-carbon transformation. Secondly, promote high-level standardization opening up. Improve the management system of investment facilitation, trade facilitation, and service trade industry standards, enhance the transparency and predictability of policy measures, promote the integration of international high-standard economic and trade rules, and accelerate the implementation of China's commitments. Support the transformation and application of foreign advanced standards in relevant industries, develop international standards, meet the international operational needs of domestic enterprises, ensure national treatment in the standard-setting for foreign-invested enterprises, and promote international standardization exchanges and cooperation. Thirdly, improve the foundation for industrial development. Develop standards around characteristic advantageous industries and key links such as new materials, intelligent equipment, and life health to promote differentiated exploration. Around the fields of digital economy, medical health, public services, and modern logistics, explore the formulation of technical, process, and management standards that meet the needs of the integrated development of modern service industry and advanced manufacturing industry. Support the standardization construction related to key park platform demonstration and business environment construction. Fourthly, build an efficient and collaborative standardization system. Clarify the paths, methods, and related management services and support measures for departments, localities, and enterprises to participate in standardization construction, strengthen work collaboration, consolidate work forces, and create a closed-loop work system. At the same time, to ensure the implementation of the "Opinions," the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Market Regulation, together with relevant departments, have issued the first batch of the "Work Task List," outlining the division of labor for each pilot demonstration province and city based on the level, field, and corresponding market demand and work needs of the standards. This supports the exploration of provinces and cities to combine their local characteristic advantages, jointly serving the construction of a unified national large market. This includes a total of 104 standard revisions and related work tasks, which will be continuously updated dynamically in the future. Next, the Ministry of Commerce and the State Administration for Market Regulation will strengthen overall coordination with the industry regulatory departments, promote the optimization of relevant standards construction, implementation, evaluation, and innovation results summary and promotion system, help foster and develop new productive forces, and expand high-level opening up to the outside world. This article comes from the official website of the Ministry of Commerce, edited by GMTEight: Liu Jiayin.