Issue 16

Shanghai Weekly Bulletin

No. 3, October 2023

 

Shanghai Weekly Bulletin is an information service presented by the Foreign Affairs Office of Shanghai Municipal People's Government in collaboration with Wolters Kluwer to foreign-funded enterprises, foreign-related institutions as well as people from overseas living in Shanghai. Covering major national and Shanghai foreign-related news, event information, policy Q&A and interpretations in the past week, it keeps you up-to-date with the latest foreign-related policies and developments in Shanghai.

 

Laws and Regulations

 

【National】

 

1. NFRA Improves Regulation on Administrative Licensing for Non-banking Financial Institutions 

 

【Keywords:Non-banking Institutions; Administrative Licensing】

 

 

The National Financial Regulatory Administration (NFRA) recently released the revised Measures for the Implementation of Administrative Licensing for Non-banking Financial Institutions. Consisting of 204 articles in seven chapters, the Measures adjust the access conditions for some business items, further expand opening-up, advance the work of streamlining administration and delegating powers, and improve the related administrative licensing rules. 

 

Source: NFRA

 

2. STA to Revise the Rules for the Implementation of Invoice Management Measures

 

【Keywords:Invoice Management】

 

 

The Decision of the State Taxation Administration (STA) on Revising the Rules for the Implementation of the Measures of the People's Republic of China on the Management of Invoices (Exposure Draft) was released on October 16, 2023 for public comment. The deadline for feedback is November 14, 2023. The revisions include addition of 14 articles, deletion of six articles, and amendments to 17 articles, involving electronic invoices, invoice data security, alignment with superior laws, invoice printing, invoice receipt, and invoice issuance. 

 

Source: STA

 

【Shanghai】

 

1. Shanghai Releases Three-year Action Plan to Further Advance Construction of New-type Infrastructure 

 

【Keywords:New-type Infrastructure】

 

 

Shanghai Municipal People's Government recently issued the Shanghai Municipal Action Plan on Further Advancing the Construction of New-type Infrastructure (2023-2026). The Plan identifies five key areas, namely new network, new computing power, new data, new facilities, and new terminals, and proposes 30 major tasks, 10 demonstration projects, and seven supportive measures.

 

Source: Shanghai Municipal People's Government

 

2. Shanghai Introduces Measures to Promote "Industrial Production at Office Buildings" and Create "Intelligent Manufacturing Space"

 

【Keywords:Industrial Production at Office Buildings】

 

 

The General Office of Shanghai Municipal People's Government recently issued the Measures on Promoting "Industrial Production at Office Buildings" to Create "Intelligent Manufacturing Space". The document proposes measures in five aspects, including optimizing land & space planning, launching comprehensive policies on industrial land use, strengthening financial support, integrating factor incentives, and implementing targeted management, to promote environmentally-friendly companies with moderate production and low noise to move their production activities to office buildings. 

 

Source: Shanghai Municipal People's Government

 

3.Shanghai Releases Measures for the Filing and Performance Evaluation of New-type R&D Institutions

 

【Keywords:New-type R&D Institutions】

 

 

Shanghai Municipal Commission of Science and Technology and Shanghai Municipal Finance Bureau issued on October 13, 2023 the Measures for the Filing and Performance Evaluation of New-type R&D Institutions in Shanghai (for Trial Implementation). The document consists of 21 articles in four chapters, and will come into effect on November 1, 2023. It clarifies that new-type R&D institutions established by private entities that have "public R&D attributes" and "a stable talent team" and also meet other three conditions can be filed with the municipal science and technology authorities after being examined and recommended by a district-level science and technology department.

 

Source: Shanghai Municipal People's Government

 

4.Shanghai Guidebook for Overseas Asset Manger (2023) Released

【Keywords:Overseas Asset Manager; Guidebook】

 

 

Both the Chinese and English versions of the Shanghai Guidebook for Overseas Asset Manager (2023) were officially released. As China's first official guiding document published by a municipal government for overseas asset management institutions, the Guidebook continues with the principles of better facilitating foreign investment and promoting localization, provides consolidated macro and industrial statistics, and focuses on financial opening-up, regulatory policies and pilot measures. It aims to provide the latest policy guidance and more effective and pragmatic measures for overseas asset management institutions planning to start operations in Shanghai.

 

Source: Invest Shanghai 

 

5. Shanghai Releases Measures to Strengthen Innovation in the Consumer Market and Expand Consumption 

 

【Keywords:Innovation Enhancement; Consumption Expansion】

 

 

The Shanghai Steering Group for Building an International Consumption Center City recently issued the Measures for Shanghai to Strengthen Consumer Market Innovation and Expand Consumption. The document introduced 12 policy measures in five aspects, including encouraging innovation, deepening policy coordination, strengthening market promotion, optimizing market environment, and reinforcing policy and institutional guarantees.

 

Source:Shanghai Release

 

6. Policy Document Issued to Enhance Capacity of Hongqiao International CBD to Serve Enterprises "Going Global"

 

【Keywords:Hongqiao CBD; Going Global】

 

 

The Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce and the Shanghai Hongqiao International Central Business District Administration issued the Measures to Accelerate the Enhancement of Capacity of Hongqiao International Central Business District to Serve Enterprises "Going Global". The document proposes 15 measures in six aspects, aiming to develop Hongqiao International CBD into a high-capacity hub for enterprises "going global" by the end of 2025, with stronger capabilities in clustering headquarters institutions and serving "going global" initiatives, professional services for international competitiveness, coordinating and allocating factor resources, and public services support. 

 

Source: Shanghai Municipal Commission of Commerce 

 

 

One Week in Shanghai

 

【Culture & Art】

 

1. Shanghai International Artwork Trade Week to Be Launched 

 

【Keyword: Shanghai International Artwork Trade Week】

 

 

The fifth Shanghai International Artwork Trade Week will be held on November 9-13, 2023. Under the theme "Global Art in Shanghai", the event will stage more than 100 art activities. In addition to the West Bund Art & Design and ART021, a couple of heavyweight exhibitions like the 14th Shanghai Biennale and the Matisse by Matisse will be launched in November. 

 

Source: Shanghai Tourism

 

2. Shanghai WorldSkills Museum to Open in Early November 

 

【Keyword: Shanghai WorldSkills Museum】

 

 

The Shanghai WorldSkills Museum will open in early November. It has six core exhibition areas including "Tools and Our World", and boasts a collection of over 2,000 precious skills-related pieces from 39 member countries and regions of the WorldSkills Organization, as well as global partners. More than 800 pieces will be first exhibited when the museum opens in November.

 

Source: Shanghai WorldSkills Museum

 

【Corporate Activities 】

 

1. Mercedes-Benz to Cooperate with Shanghai FTZ to Promote Development of Intelligent Connected Vehicles

 

【Keyword:Mercedes-Benz; Intelligent Connected Vehicles】

 

 

Mercedes-Benz signed a memorandum of cooperation with Jinqiao Bureau of the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone Administration and Jinqiao Group on October 17, 2023. The three parties will establish in-depth cooperation in autonomous driving and intelligent connected vehicles, and jointly promote the construction of a smart city and a hub of intelligent connected vehicles in Shanghai. Mercedes-Benz's R&D team in China is expected to grow to 2,000 people by the end of this year, nearly double compared to 2020. Mercedes-Benz Shanghai R&D Center is also scheduled to be relocated to a new building in the first half of 2024.

 

Source:China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone

 

2. Pudong New Area Government Inks Strategic Partnership Agreement with Tishman Speyer 

 

【Keyword: Tishman Speyer】

 

 

The People's Government of Pudong New Area recently signed a strategic partnership agreement with Tishman Speyer in Shanghai. As Pudong explores innovative and integrated development of industrial land in Zhangjiang Science City and launches new measures to make flexible arrangement on land use, Tishman Speyer plans to strengthen its business presence in Pudong and use its existing industrial land resources to create China's first Breakthrough Life Sciences Park in Zhangjiang. The facility hopes to provide high-quality R&D and production properties for life science entities and enhance the industrial capacity and property quality of Pudong New Area in the field of life science.

 

Source: Pudong Release

 

【Training】

 

1. Shanghai Municipal Procuratorate to Hold Lecture on IP Prosecution, Compliance Measures and Typical Case Sharing

 

【Keyword: Intellectual Property】

 

 

In order to help foreign-invested enterprises understand the relevant work of the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate in criminal cases of intellectual property infringement, the Shanghai Foreign Investment Association will invite Prosecutor Lu Chuan of the Procuratorate to give a lecture on "Intellectual Property Prosecution Duty Performance, Compliance Measures and Typical Case Sharing". He would share practical experience from the perspectives of prosecution practices and corporate internal compliance management.

 

Source:Shanghai Foreign Investment Association

 

 

Q&A

 

Q1: Lin-gang Special Area is working hard to build a smart ecological modern town. What are the main achievements of the new area in building new infrastructure? What's the plan in the next stage?

 

A: First, a number of high-standard new digital infrastructure projects have been completed. An international Internet exchange center has been built. By now, the total access bandwidth has been 1.82T. Special channels for international data transmission have been opened, and 15 companies have opened 21 dedicated channels. A total of 2,400 5G base stations have been built and opened. We have built Shanghai's first all-fiber 1000M Internet network for smart home community. Eight high-capacity computing power centers have been built with 23,000 racks and a dispatchable computing power of approximately 3EFLOPS. Five international maritime optical cables and two maritime landing stations have been built. These facilities can attract more data elements to flow to China and gather in Lin-gang.

 

Second, a number of new intelligent network-connected transportation infrastructure projects have been completed. We have completed the road pole and box installations in the core area and constructed a vehicle-road-cloud integrated control platform. It is expected that about 80 kilometers of "vehicle-road coordination" roads will be completed by the end of the year. Yangshan Port's smart heavy trucks have been put into commercial applications on a regular basis. A total of 241 autonomous driving roads with total length of 545 kilometers have been open for road testing. These smart facilities are empowering the development of intelligent connected cars in the new area with "intelligent driving, intelligent data, intelligent industry, intelligent town and intelligent standards".

 

Third, a number of green and low-carbon new energy infrastructure projects have been completed. Lin-gang has become the first batch of pilot areas for distributed rooftop photovoltaics, with a cumulative new grid-connected capacity of 88.64 MW. Two hydrogenation stations have been built, two are under construction, and four are being planned. One comprehensive energy station has been built, four are under construction, and eight are being planned. Yangshan Port has become the third port in the world and the first in China to provide bonded LNG "ship-to-ship" injection service for international ships. The energy structure of the new area has been continuously optimized and the energy utilization efficiency has been improved.

 

In the next stage, under the guidance of the city's new round of action plan for new infrastructure, we will further leverage the advantages of open innovation and use new infrastructure as an important support for the construction of special economic function zones and modern new cities, improve quality, strengthen functions, and empower Lin-gang to become a "young town for young people".

 

Our first priority is to build an international data port. We will strive to build new international maritime optical cables and landing stations, build green data centers that serve international data cooperation, and create a new hub for international high-capacity data circulation. We will start construction of the international data economy industrial park, promote the formulation of and connection with international digital economic and trade rules, explore new mechanisms and new technologies for the safe cross-border flow of data, and promote international data industry cooperation.

 

The second is to continue to promote innovative applications of intelligent connected vehicles. We plan to build a national leading zone of intelligent connected vehicles, promote the commercial application of L3 and higher-level autonomous driving functions, and explore the expanded application for autonomous vehicles and unmanned equipment. We would push for the application of large AI models in autonomous driving and build Lin-gang into an auto city of the future.

 

The third is to accelerate the construction of low-energy demonstration cities. We would promote innovation in the local legislative system for hydrogen energy and promote the management of hydrogen energy as an energy source. We plan to build integrated stations for hydrogen production, storage and refueling, and achieve innovation and breakthrough in the field of offshore wind power hydrogen production, storage and hydrogen energy applications. We would push for construction of virtual power plants, carry out energy storage demonstration projects, and improve energy efficiency. We will strive to adapt to the development trend of green shipping, and explore and carry out green and clean refueling services for new ships.

 

Source: Shanghai Release

 

 

Expert Perspective

 

Compliance Standards for Outbound Transfer of Data May Be Subject to Important Adjustments – An Interpretation of the Regulation on Standardizing and Promoting Cross-border Data Flow (Exposure Draft)

 

By Wu Weiming, Liu Yundong (AllBright Law Offices)

 

First point: outward transfer of overseas personal information does not need to be subject to three conditions

 

According to Article 3 of the regulation, if personal information is not collected within China and is going to be provided to overseas entities, there is no need to conduct security assessment on data export, sign a standard contract for personal information export, or pass personal information protection certification. 

 

Although Article 3.7 of the Guidelines for Security Assessment on the Export of Information Security Technology Data (Exposure Draft) has made the following stipulations: (1) personal information and important data not collected and generated during domestic operations but transferred out of the country without any changes or processing does not constitute data export. (2) Personal information and important data not collected and generated in domestic operations but stored and processed in the country and then transferred out of the country does not constitute data export. However, according to the National Standard Information Public Service Platform, the standard-setting plan has been terminated, and the existing laws and regulations do not make specific stipulations about relevant situations. Therefore, it has always been one of the troubling issues for data processors that whether they are obligated to apply for data export security assessment on personal information collected and generated overseas and then stored in the country and provided to overseas entities. The Regulation on Standardizing and Promoting Cross-border Data Flow gives a clear answer to the issue, and based on the above analysis of the date of effect, this conclusion is highly predictable.