Since the reform and opening up, China has made great achievements in opening up to the outside world, realizing a great historical turning point from a closed and semi-closed economy to an all-round opening, forming a stepped opening pattern from the coast to the riverside and from the east to the central and western regions, realizing an opening pattern from trade to investment, from trade in goods to trade in services, and showing a new opening trend from small quantity to large quantity and from low quality to high quality. China is playing an increasingly important role in the world economic stage with the new spirit of opening up.

First, the depth and breadth of opening to the outside world are constantly expanding.

Marked by the Third Plenary Session of the Eleventh Central Committee, China began a historic transformation of opening to the outside world. Opening to the outside world has been carried out in the mode of trial first and then promotion, and adopted the strategy of step by step, multi-level and gradual progress, which has experienced a process of continuous expansion and deepening.

(1) Opening to the outside world has been promoted from local areas to the whole country.

1979, the State Council, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China decided to implement special policies and preferential measures for the foreign economic activities of Guangdong and Fujian provinces. 1980, four special economic zones were established, namely, Shenzhen, Zhuhai, Shantou and Xiamen, marking the official launch of China's opening-up ship.

From the mid-1980s to the early 1990s, the scope of opening to the outside world gradually expanded from special zones to coastal, riverside and border areas, initially forming a pattern of pushing inland from coastal areas. 1992, cities along the Yangtze River and the Three Gorges reservoir area, provincial capitals and border cities along the border and coastal areas were opened one after another, and inland provincial capitals such as Taiyuan were opened 1 1. In the following years, a large number of qualified inland counties and cities were opened one after another.

200 1 12, China's accession to the World Trade Organization (WTO) has changed from the original regional opening to all-round opening, and China's opening up has entered a new stage of development. At this point, a regional opening-up pattern from the coast to the mainland, from south to north and from east to west has basically taken shape.

(2) Opening to the outside world has been promoted from commodity trade to investment and service trade.

At the beginning of reform and opening up, China's opening up to the outside world took "earning foreign exchange through export" as the breakthrough point, and doing everything possible to expand exports became the basic direction of the policy. In view of the international and domestic situation at that time, Comrade Deng Xiaoping pointed out that opening to the outside world should not only continue to expand commodity trade, but also allow foreign businessmen to directly invest and set up enterprises in China to engage in processing trade. In this way, the original foreign economic and trade exchanges have expanded from trade to investment and production. Foreign direct investment, borrowing foreign debt and financing in the international market are widely used. With the deepening of opening to the outside world, the pace of opening to the outside world in the service industry has accelerated and the service trade has developed rapidly.

Second, foreign trade has reached a new level.

Foreign trade is an important way and channel for a country to participate in international economic cooperation and competition, and it is also the core content and starting point of China's opening to the outside world. Over the past 30 years of reform and opening up, China's foreign trade has made brilliant achievements.

(1) The scale of trade in goods increased by more than 100.

In 2007, the total import and export trade of China soared from $20.6 billion in 1978 to $2173.7 billion, an increase of 104 times. Among them, the total export volume increased from $9.8 billion to1217.8 billion, an increase of 124 times; The total import volume increased from/kloc-0.09 billion US dollars to 956 billion US dollars, an increase of 87 times. From 1979 to 2007, the average annual growth rate of import and export trade was 17.4%, including 18. 1% for exports and 16.7% for imports.

Especially after China formally joined the WTO in February 2000165438, China actively participated in the process of economic globalization, seized the historic opportunity of accelerating the transfer of international industries, and its foreign trade development was full of vitality, winning the fastest and best development period in history. From 2002 to 2007, China's import and export trade grew at an average annual rate of 28.5%, of which exports grew at an average annual rate of 28.9% and imports at an average annual rate of 27.3%. In 200 1 year, the total import and export trade of China was 509.7 billion dollars. In 2004, it broke through the 1 trillion dollar mark for the first time, and in 2007, it broke through the 2 trillion dollar mark in one fell swoop.

In the 58 years since 1950, it took 29 years for China's total import and export trade to exceed $20 billion, 23 years for it to reach 1 trillion, and 3 years for it to reach 1 trillion. From 2002 to 2007, in the six years after China's accession to the WTO, the total import and export trade has exceeded 1979-200 1 year, which is the sum of the 23 years from the reform and opening up to China's accession to the WTO.

Over the past 30 years, the import and export trade has changed from deficit to surplus, which has turned China from a country with limited foreign exchange to the largest foreign exchange reserve country in the world. From the reform and opening up to 1993, the import and export trade was in deficit in most years except for a few years. Since entering 1994, the import and export trade has maintained a surplus and the scale has been expanding. The trade surplus of 1995 exceeded100 billion US dollars, reaching167 billion US dollars. In 2005, it exceeded $654.38+000 billion, reaching $654.38+002 billion. In 2007, it exceeded $200 billion, reaching $261800 million. In 2007, China's foreign exchange reserves expanded rapidly from only $654.38+67 billion in 1978 to $/kloc-0.5 trillion.

With the rapid growth of import and export trade, China's position in world trade has been continuously improved, ranking 32nd in the initial stage of reform and opening up and 3rd in 2004-2007. The proportion of the total world trade increased from less than 1% in 1978 to nearly 8% in 2007, making it a veritable trading power. Among them, in 2007, the proportion of exports in the world's total exports increased to 8.8%, ranking second in the world; Imports accounted for 6.7% of the world's total imports, ranking third in the world.

(2) The trade structure of goods has been continuously optimized.

From the perspective of export commodity structure, over the past 30 years, China's export commodity structure has been continuously optimized and upgraded, from primary products to manufactured goods, from labor-intensive products such as textiles to capital-intensive products such as electromechanical and high-tech products. From 65438 to 0978, the export of primary products accounted for 53.5%, and the export of finished products accounted for 46.5%. From 65438 to 0985, the proportion of primary products and industrial finished products was almost the same, accounting for 50.5% and 49.5% respectively. By 1986, the export proportion of finished products greatly exceeded that of primary products, reaching 63.6%, and the export proportion of primary products dropped to 36.4%. In 2007, the proportion of primary products and finished products further became 5. 1% and 94.9%, and finished products occupied an absolute dominant position in China's export commodities.

Fortunately, in the export of manufactured goods, the proportion of mechanical and electrical products in the total export continues to increase, from 26.4% in 1994 to 42.3% in 2000, and further to 5 1.9% in 2003 and 57.6% in 2007. The proportion of high-tech products in total exports was 14.9% in 2000, increased to 25.2% in 2003 and further increased to 28.6% in 2007. The leading position of electromechanical and high-tech products in China's export trade is increasingly obvious.

From the perspective of the structure of imported goods, in order to meet the needs of the rapid development of the national economy and the process of industrialization and modernization, the proportion of primary products such as resources and basic raw materials in the structure of imported goods has obviously expanded, and electromechanical products and high-tech products have grown rapidly.

1985, the proportion of primary products in imported goods was only 12.5%, and this proportion rose to 25.4% in 2007. Among them, the proportion of mineral fuel, lubricating oil and related raw materials and non-edible raw materials in the total import volume increased from 0.4% and 7.6% in 1985 to1.0% and 12.4% in 2007, respectively. In recent years, the import of basic raw materials such as soybeans, iron ore and oil has continued to increase substantially.

At the same time, the domestic demand for foreign advanced technology and complete sets of equipment is increasing day by day. In the import of manufactured goods, mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products grew rapidly. In 2007, China's imports of mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products were US$ 499 billion and US$ 287 billion, which were 8.7 times and 5.5 times that of 1994 and 2000, respectively. The proportion of mechanical and electrical products in imports increased from 49.4% in 1994 to 52.2%, and the proportion of high-tech products in imports increased from 23.3% in 2000 to 30.0%. The rapid growth of mechanical and electrical products and high-tech products not only makes up for the shortage of domestic economic construction resources and technology, but also creates conditions for the adjustment and upgrading of industrial structure.

From the perspective of trade market structure, since the reform and opening up, China's trading partners have reached more than 220, and the diversified pattern of trade market has gradually taken shape. Especially with the development of economic globalization and regional economic integration, China's trade cooperation with the United States, the European Union and Japan has flourished, and great progress has been made in exploring emerging markets such as ASEAN, Russia and India, and exchanges with other trading partners have developed rapidly.

From 65438 to 0998 to 2003, Japan was China's largest trading partner, and the United States and the European Union ranked second and third. In 2004-2005, the European Union became China's largest trading partner, while the United States and Japan ranked second and third. In 2007, the bilateral trade volume between China and Europe, China and the United States, and China and Japan was US$ 356,654.38+0 billion, US$ 302,654.38+0 billion and US$ 236 billion respectively, which were 5.2 times, 4.5 times and 3.8 times of 1.998 respectively.

In 2007, ASEAN was China's fourth largest trading partner, with bilateral trade volume reaching US$ 202.5 billion, 7.6 times higher than that of 1998. Russian and Indian are China's eighth and tenth largest trading partners respectively.

(c) Trade in services has made great progress.

In 2007, the total trade in services increased from $4.3 billion in 1982 to $250.9 billion, a 57-fold increase in 25 years, with an average annual growth of 17.6%. Among them, the export volume increased from $2.48 billion to121700 million, with an average annual growth rate of16.9%; Imports increased from $654.38+87 million to $654.38+29.3 million, with an average annual growth rate of 654.38+0.8%.

Especially after joining the WTO, China has strictly fulfilled its commitment of opening up in the field of service trade, which has greatly promoted the development of service trade. In the six years since China's entry into WTO, the export volume of service trade has increased by 24.4% annually, which is higher than the world average growth rate of 13.8% in the same period, and also higher than the export growth rate of service trade in major countries in the world in the same period. At the same time, the structure of service trade has been gradually optimized, initially forming a comprehensive development pattern of communication, insurance, finance, exclusive rights use fees and franchise fees, computer and information services, consulting and advertising. At the beginning of reform and opening-up, the export proportion of traditional services such as tourism, transportation and construction reached more than 80%, and in 2007, this proportion has dropped to 60.8%.

In 2007, the proportion of total service trade in China's total foreign trade increased from 9.4% in 1982 to 10.3%, and the proportion in world service trade increased from 0.6% to 4%. It ranks fifth in the world after the United States, Britain, Germany and Japan, and has become an important country in world service trade, with exports and imports ranking seventh and fifth respectively.

The utilization of foreign capital has developed rapidly, ranking first among developing countries for many years.

Active and effective use of foreign capital is an important part of China's basic national policy of reform and opening up, and it is also one of the core contents of opening up. The entry of foreign capital has made up the double gap of capital and technology that has plagued China for a long time, promoted economic growth, increased tax revenue and employment opportunities, promoted the optimization and upgrading of industrial structure, and played an important role in accelerating China's economic development, improving the overall quality of the national economy, enhancing the core competitiveness of enterprises, and accelerating the pace of China's economy's full integration into the international community.

(1) The scale of utilizing foreign capital is constantly expanding, and foreign direct investment has gradually become the mainstream.

Before 1992, China mainly used foreign loans, especially government loans, and foreign direct investment has been very small. From 1979 to 199 1, foreign loans exceed foreign direct investment every year. During the period of 13, the accumulated foreign loans reached $52.6 billion, while the foreign direct investment was only $2.5/kloc-0.0 billion. From 65438 to 0992, the utilization of foreign direct investment exceeded foreign borrowing for the first time, and since then, foreign direct investment has increased substantially year by year, becoming the most important way to utilize foreign capital in China.

From the perspective of foreign direct investment, China's foreign direct investment was only $91600 million in 1983, and reached $74.8 billion in 2007, an increase of 8 1 times in 24 years; By the end of 2007, the total foreign direct investment in China had exceeded 770 billion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 20. 1%, which was much higher than the growth rate of China's national economy in the same period. Among them, from 1983 to 199 1, less foreign investment was attracted, with an average annual foreign direct investment of about $2.6 billion. After 1992, it showed a vigorous development momentum. 1992 broke through for the first time100 billion USD, 1993 reached 20 billion USD, 1994 exceeded 30 billion USD. After that, China's position as a global investment hotspot was gradually established and absorbed. From 1992 to 2007, the average annual foreign investment absorption exceeded 45 billion US dollars, with an average annual growth rate of 19.4%, which was 7.5 percentage points higher than the average annual growth rate of global foreign direct investment inflows in the same period.

According to the forecast of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, in 2007, the global transnational direct investment flow reached a record 1 0.5 trillion US dollars, of which the foreign direct investment absorbed by developed countries reached1trillion US dollars, and the foreign direct investment absorbed by developing countries was close to 440 billion US dollars. In 2007, China absorbed 74.8 billion US dollars of foreign direct investment, of which the total foreign direct investment in the financial sector was about 83.5 billion US dollars, accounting for 5.4% of global foreign direct investment and 19% of developing countries. Since 1993, China has been the developing country that has absorbed the most foreign capital for 15 years.

By the end of 2007, there were more than 280,000 foreign-invested enterprises registered in China, with a total investment of 2 1 1 trillion US dollars. In 2007, the import and export volume of foreign-invested enterprises was $65.438+025.49 billion, accounting for 57.7% of China's foreign trade import and export, and the tax paid was more than 990 billion yuan, accounting for 20% of the national tax revenue, providing more than 50 million jobs.

(2) The ways of utilizing foreign capital have been continuously broadened.

From the beginning of reform and opening up to the beginning of China's accession to the WTO, the way of attracting foreign direct investment in China is relatively simple, and green land investment is always the main way, while M&A has little investment and financing in the international capital market. Since joining the WTO, China has earnestly fulfilled its WTO commitments, opened its capital market step by step, actively and steadily, and improved relevant laws and regulations. The internationalization of the capital market is progressing in an orderly manner.

First, qualified domestic enterprises are allowed to list overseas. China government supports qualified domestic enterprises to go public overseas, expand financing channels and participate in international competition. By the end of April 2008, * * * had 65,438+050 domestic companies listed overseas, raising a total of $65,438+065,438+005 billion, of which 55 companies issued A shares at the same time.

Secondly, actively promote the qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII) system and qualified domestic institutional investor (QDII) system. At present, the QFII investment quota has been increased to 30 billion US dollars, 54 overseas institutions have obtained QFII qualification, and the allowed investment quota is about 654.38+005 billion US dollars, and another 5 foreign banks have been allowed to carry out QFII custody business. In terms of QDII, 2 1 fund management companies and 9 securities companies obtained QDII qualification, 9 QDII fund products and 1 QDII collective asset management plan were approved, and the approved investment amount reached 37.5 billion US dollars.

Third, open the securities industry within the framework of WTO. By the end of April, 2008, China Securities Regulatory Commission had approved the establishment of 7 Sino-foreign joint venture securities companies and 365,438+0 Sino-foreign joint venture fund management companies, of which 65,438+05 joint venture fund companies had foreign equity accounting for 49%.

Fourth, improve and perfect the foreign M&A policy. In 2006, "Regulations on Merger and Acquisition of Domestic Enterprises by Foreign Investors" was promulgated, and China's foreign M&A policy and environment were comprehensively improved.

By the end of 2007, foreign investors * * * acquired 2 1.800 shares of enterprises in China, accounting for 7.6% of the total number of foreign-invested enterprises, of which foreign investors acquired 1.940 shares of foreign-invested enterprises and 2,373 shares of domestic-funded enterprises; The registered capital of the merged enterprise is $65.438+0343 billion, accounting for 654.38+065.438+0.6% of the registered capital of foreign-invested enterprises.

(C) the use of foreign capital to continuously optimize the industrial structure

In the early days of reform and opening up, China's utilization of foreign capital generally showed the characteristics of quantitative expansion. In order to earn foreign exchange through export and introduce foreign capital, governments at all levels provide preferential land use, taxation and financing for export-oriented foreign-invested enterprises, forming a foreign investment pattern dominated by labor-intensive processing trade. After joining the WTO, China has successively revised and improved relevant policies, promulgated a new enterprise income tax law and a catalogue of foreign-invested industries, and cancelled the super-national treatment of foreign-invested enterprises. Further expand the opening of service industry; Strictly restrict the entry of low-level, high-consumption and high-pollution foreign-funded projects. At the same time, give full play to the positive role of foreign capital in independent innovation, optimize the regional distribution of foreign capital, innovate the ways of utilizing foreign capital, actively and steadily expand the opening up of financial, insurance, telecommunications and other service industries, and expand new areas of utilizing foreign capital.

Under the guidance of the new foreign investment policy, the focus of foreign investment has shifted from general manufacturing to high-tech industries, basic industries and infrastructure construction, especially in recent years, foreign investment in R&D centers, integrated circuits, computers, communication products and other high-tech projects has increased significantly; After opening the field of service trade, services such as commerce, foreign trade, telecommunications, finance, insurance and real estate have become the focus of a new round of foreign investment.

The industrial composition of foreign investment has improved significantly, and the proportion of investment in the tertiary industry has increased significantly. From 2005 to 2007, the proportion of foreign investment absorbed by the tertiary industry in the total foreign investment was 24.7%, 3 1.6% and 4 1.4% respectively. The proportion of secondary industry is 74. 1%, 67.5% and 57.3% respectively, showing the opposite trend.

Fourth, the implementation of the "going out" strategy has achieved initial results.

The main content of the "going out" strategy is to promote enterprises to go abroad in various ways such as foreign investment and foreign economic and technological cooperation, and make full use of "two markets and two resources" to realize the sustainable development of China's economy.

(1) The field of foreign economic cooperation has been continuously expanded, and its competitiveness has been gradually enhanced.

Foreign economic cooperation began in the late 1970s and is a new thing brought by the reform and opening up. Through continuous efforts, it has rapidly developed into an important part of China's foreign trade and economic cooperation.

Starting from 1976, China's foreign contracted labor services entered the international stage for the first time. By1980 * *, there are 29 enterprises engaged in foreign project contracting and labor cooperation, and their main markets are concentrated in West Asia and North Africa. 198 1 year later, China's foreign economic cooperation team began to grow gradually, the management level of enterprises continued to improve, the scale of foreign contracting business expanded, the comprehensive competitiveness was enhanced, and the market diversification strategy achieved initial results. Since 1995, foreign design consulting business has been carried out, and the field of foreign economic cooperation has been further broadened.

Since China joined the WTO, foreign economic cooperation has entered the fast lane of benign development. From a few enterprises at the beginning of reform and opening up to 2007, it has developed into a relatively complete team with strong international competitiveness composed of more than 1000 enterprises, and its business scope has been continuously expanded to more technical fields, and its economic and social benefits have been significantly improved. From 2002 to 2007, 486,000 foreign economic cooperation contracts were signed, with a contract value of US$ 257.7 billion and a turnover of US$ 65.438+06.33 billion, which were 65.438+0.9 times, 2 times and 654.38+0.8 times, respectively, from 654.38+0976 to 2006.54.38+.

2007 was a year in which China made great progress in its foreign economic cooperation. The newly signed contracts amounted to US$ 85.3 billion, and the completed turnover was US$ 47.9 billion, up by 65,438+09.1%and 34.2% respectively over the previous year. 753,000 laborers of various types were dispatched. Among them, the turnover of foreign contracted projects was 40.6 billion US dollars, an increase of 35.3% over the previous year. The business covers more than 80 countries and regions around the world, and projects in the fields of electricity, metallurgy, petrochemical, rail transit and electronic communication with intensive capital and technology have accounted for half of the total turnover; The number of large-scale projects has increased rapidly. In 2007, 49 companies were selected as the top 225 global contractors by ENR, and 65,438+04 companies were among the top 100 companies.

(2) The scale of foreign investment grew strongly.

The foreign direct investment of enterprises in China started in the early stage of reform and opening-up. At that time, with the approval of the state, only a few state-owned enterprises, mainly trading companies, set up representative offices or enterprises abroad.

After 30 years of exploration and development, although the scale of China's foreign investment is still small, it has made positive progress. Since China joined the WTO, the foreign investment of China enterprises has entered a period of rapid development. In 2002, China's foreign direct investment was only US$ 2.7 billion, which rose to US$ 26.5 billion in 2007, with an average annual growth rate of 25. 1% in the six years from 2002 to 2007. By the end of 2007, more than 7,000 domestic investors had established overseas direct investment enterprises 1000.

The field of foreign investment has been continuously broadened and the level and level of foreign investment have been continuously improved. At present, China enterprises' foreign investment shows the trend of market diversification, with investment countries covering 170 countries and regions, mainly in Asia and Latin America. In 2007, Asia accounted for 62.6% of China's foreign direct investment, Latin America accounted for 18.5%, and Europe, North America and Oceania accounted for 13%.

Foreign investment has expanded from a single greenfield investment to transnational mergers and acquisitions, equity participation and overseas listing. Cross-border mergers and acquisitions have become an important way of foreign investment, mainly flowing to resources, telecommunications and petrochemical industries. In 2007, foreign direct investment realized through acquisitions and mergers accounted for 23.8% of the total investment flow. A number of overseas R&D centers and industrial clusters have been gradually established, and important progress has been made in the construction of overseas economic and trade cooperation zones.

Not only do extractive industries, manufacturing industries and business services continue to increase their foreign investment, but the financial industry has also started a pilot project of overseas investment. By the end of 2006, the total overseas assets of five state-owned commercial banks, including China Industrial and Commercial Bank, reached US$ 226.8 billion. State-owned commercial banks have 47 branches, 365,438+0 subsidiaries and 65,438+02 representative offices in 29 countries and regions such as the United States, Japan, Britain, Australia, Russia and Brazil. By the end of April 2008, China had approved 65,438+00 securities companies and 6 futures companies to set up branches in Hong Kong, and 365,438+0 domestic enterprises were allowed to engage in overseas futures trading for hedging purposes.

By the end of 2007, the stock of foreign direct investment in China reached 1 179 billion US dollars, including 167 billion US dollars for financial enterprises and1/200 million US dollars for non-financial enterprises.

Verb (abbreviation of verb) multilateral and bilateral economic and trade cooperation has achieved remarkable results.

The first is to raise the construction of the free trade zone to a strategic height. Free trade zone has become a new form of China's opening to the outside world, a new starting point and a new platform to achieve mutual benefit and win-win with other countries. China began to build a free trade zone in 2000. As of June 5438+00, 2007, China has established 12 free trade zones with 29 countries and regions in Asia, Oceania, Latin America, Europe and Africa, accounting for more than a quarter of China's total exports. The signing and implementation of the Free Trade Agreement on Trade in Goods and Services with ASEAN has promoted the deepening of the "10+ 1" and "10+3" mechanisms.

Second, bilateral, multilateral and regional economic and trade cooperation has been further deepened. China has signed bilateral investment protection agreements with 123 countries, and established more than 180 multi-bilateral joint committee mechanisms with 129 countries and regions and 13 international organizations, which has played an important role in strengthening multi-bilateral economic and trade cooperation.

The third is to establish a strategic economic dialogue mechanism. On September 20, 2006, the China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue mechanism was officially launched. So far, China-US Strategic Economic Dialogue has been held three times, and the two sides have reached a series of important understandings and signed many agreements. At the same time, China has successively established corresponding economic dialogue mechanisms with Japan, the European Union and ASEAN, and strengthened coordination and communication with its major economic and trade partners. Holding the "Year of the Country" with Russia involves many economic and trade activities. Enriched the content of economic and trade cooperation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. The Beijing Summit of the Forum on China-Africa Cooperation was established to implement eight measures for economic and trade cooperation with Africa. Two mechanisms have been established: the China-Caribbean Economic and Trade Cooperation Forum and the China-Pacific Island Economic Forum.

Looking ahead, the task of opening to the outside world is still very heavy. We should further expand the breadth and depth of opening to the outside world, improve the level of open economy, better combine "bringing in" with "going out", improve the internal and external linkage, mutual benefit and win-win, safe and efficient open economic system, and strive to create and maintain new advantages in participating in international economic cooperation and competition under the conditions of economic globalization.