Xinhua News Agency, Tianjin, September 20 (Sun Yi, Warm) Premier Li Keqiang held a dialogue meeting with representatives of industry and commerce, finance, think tanks and the media who attended the 2018 Summer Davos Forum in Tianjin Meijiang Convention and Exhibition Center on the morning of September 20.
Li Keqiang answered questions on China's financial openness, intellectual property protection, tax and fee reduction, innovation and entrepreneurship, reform of the world trade system and other issues. President Schwab of the World Economic Forum chaired the dialogue. More than 200 representatives from China, the United States, Europe, Japan and other countries and regions attended.
Regarding the openness of China's financial industry, Li Keqiang said that the degree of openness of a country's financial industry is closely related to its development stage, economic level and regulatory capacity. While maintaining financial stability, we are determined to further open up the financial services industry, fully implement the "pre access national treatment+negative list" model, and orderly promote the opening up of full licenses and full share ratios. At present, the restrictions on share ratios have been lifted for banks, and in the future, the restrictions on share ratios for insurance and securities will also be lifted.
Regarding tax and fee cuts, Li Keqiang said that from the second half of last year to the first half of this year, China's tax revenue has increased to a certain extent, which is the performance of China's economic stability and improvement. In the first half of this year, the profit growth rate of industrial enterprises exceeded 15%, and the number of market entities continued to increase significantly, which also increased tax sources. Since the second half of the year, with the effect of the tax reduction policy appearing, the central and local tax revenue growth rates have dropped significantly. Next, we will implement more large-scale tax cuts and more obvious fee cuts, including a significant reduction in the social insurance rate, so that enterprises can truly embark on a light load and develop freely. The special deduction items of individual income tax should be fairly and simply implemented to the residents to increase their consumption capacity. The government should live a tight life. It should not embarrass enterprises, but let the people live a good life.
On entrepreneurship and innovation and intellectual property protection, Li Keqiang said that to build an innovative society, we should strive to mobilize everyone's creative potential. We have taken a series of regulatory measures to ensure that everyone has equal opportunities for innovation and encourage large enterprises to develop their own space for mass innovation. Foreign entrepreneurs are welcome to participate in China's development. To develop an innovative economy, intellectual property is the foundation. China will continue to strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and punish infringement. Last year, the foreign patent licensing fees and technology royalties paid by Chinese enterprises ranked first in the world. We will never allow compulsory transfer of intellectual property rights.
On the reform of the world trade system, Li Keqiang pointed out that under the current situation, trade protectionism is rising and the foundation of multilateral trade rules has been shaken. The multilateral trading system and its rules, with the World Trade Organization as the core, are established through mutual consultation by all countries. The foundation is to maintain free trade. Although the WTO also needs necessary reforms, it is not "starting from scratch", and the direction of trade liberalization cannot be changed. We should take into account the interests of developing countries, especially the least developed countries. We should discuss everything we have to do, and everyone should be happy.
The delegates at the meeting gave a warm response to Premier Li Keqiang's speech at the opening ceremony of the Forum and the dialogue meeting with all sectors of the society, and they thought it would help the outside world better understand China's development, reform and innovation policies, and were willing to actively participate in China's next reform, opening up and development process.
Li Hongzhong, Xiao Jie and He Lifeng attended the dialogue.
(Editor in charge: Wang Renhong, Cao Kun)
