Shenzhen is considering allowing enterprises from the Hong Kong and Macao special administrative regions to directly run business across the border in the Qianhai & Shekou Free Trade Area, Shenzhen Special Zone Daily reported yesterday.
A revised draft of the regulations of the free trade area has been recently submitted to the city’s legislature for a second review, the report said.
According to State regulations, overseas enterprises that enter the Chinese market mainly operate in the form of establishing foreign-invested enterprises or branches, subsidiaries and representative offices in China.
The draft regulations say that qualified business entities of Hong Kong and Macao are allowed to keep their names and shareholders unchanged, and can directly register as overseas enterprises in the free trade area and engage in relevant business activities according to law.
Financial innovation remains the key to the reform and innovation of the Qianhai & Shekou Free Trade Area. The draft clearly proposes that the free trade area should carry out more pioneering explorations in the financial field.
In the banking sector, a joint account system combining Chinese and foreign currencies is in the pipeline to promote cross-border trade, investment and financial settlement in the area.
The free trade area will support the establishment of a multi-currency and cross-border fund pooling scheme to improve the efficiency of capital allocation, as well as a cross-border wealth management scheme to meet the growing needs of residents in Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.
In terms of cross-border financial connectivity, the area will expand the opening-up of the insurance industry by supporting qualified Hong Kong and Macao insurance companies to set up agencies and after-sales service centers in the free trade area.