Shanghai has rolled out a series of policies to further open the service industry to foreign investors and facilitate service trade.
The policies allow wider market access for foreign investors in sectors including investment, culture and entertainment, tourism, publishing, auction, health, commerce and trade.
Foreign enterprises will be entitled to treatment equivalent to domestic firms and further efforts will be made to protect the intellectual property of transnational corporations in core processes and components in the industry chain.
The policies further open cross-border service trade, especially the digital trade, shipping and financial industries, while also facilitating trade to help build the city into a sci-tech innovation center.
Some of the policies will be first implemented in the pilot free trade zone in Shanghai.
"The new policies will further improve the local business environment and the city's competitiveness in participating in international cooperation, helping promote the construction of the international trade center," Hua Yuan, director of the Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce, told a press briefing Tuesday.
The municipal government will work on regulations and supervision to enhance risk prevention and control and prepare more policies for the next round of opening-up, said Hua.
In the first half of this year, the industrial output of the service sector in Shanghai grew 9.1 percent to 1.17 trillion yuan (166 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 71.2 percent of the city's gross domestic product.
