I. Overview:
Cross-strait Financial Center is located in the east of Xiamen Island and has a planned total coverage area of 23sqkm. As the only "cross-strait" regional financial service center in China approved by the State Council in 2010, it borders Huandao Road on the east, the Conference andExhibitionCenter on the south, Yunding Road on the west and Wuyuan Bay on the north and spans Siming and Huli administrative districts. It is a financial and business district collectively planned at a high starting point and on a high level and also an important window for Xiamen to implement comprehensive infrastructure reform, deepen cross-strait exchange and cooperation and give full rein to the pioneering role in cross-strait relations.
The area is planned and constructed at a high starting point and according to high standards. It comprises "one core, two belts and five groups" in layout.
"One core" refers to Wutong Core Financial and Commercial Zone that has a coverage area of 0.83sqkm. It borders Wutong Area on the north, Guanyinshan Business Operation Zone on the south, the ocean on the east and a mountain on the west.
Development goal:Attract the headquarters and regional headquarters of more than 100 financial and quasi-financial institutions and also the headquarters of famous enterprises and become a pioneering zone and paradigm zone in cross-strait financial cooperation and financial innovation and development.
"Two belts" refer to Huandao Road Financial Office Belt and Seaside Tourism Belt, wherein Huandao Road Financial Office Belt links up the frontier office zones along Huandao Road, including Wuyuan Bay Medical Office Group, Wutong Core Financial Zone, Guanyinshan Commercial Group and Qianpu Conference and ExhibitionGroup from north to south. It can satisfy the seaside view office demands of large-size institutions. The target includes domestic and foreign large-size financial institutions, international organizations, headquarters of large-size enterprises, high-end hotels and international conference and exhibition projects. The seaside tourism belt has a planned coverage area of about 2.73sqkm as the regional core accessory zone of tourism. The focus will be placed on developing conference and exhibition, hotel, commercial, shopping center, shoreline cultural, tourism and other supporting service industries. The completed projects include Xiangshan Yacht Center, Guanyinshan Tourism Zone, Xiamen-Jinmen Bay Tourism Zone, Helicopter Tourism Service Center, Light House Park and other tourism and leisure projects.
"Five groups" include Qianpu Conference and Exhibition Group, Guanyinshan Commercial Group, Software Park Group, Wuyuan Bay Medical Office Group and Lakeside Residential Group, wherein “Qianpu Conference and Exhibition Group” has a planned total coverage area of about 2.68sqkm and is expected to become a high-end financial and commercial zone for high-end financial headquarters, regulatory organs and modern conference and exhibition industry; “Guanyinshan Commercial Group” has a planned coverage area of 2.12 sqkm and a total construction area of about 3,247,000sqm on the ground. It is expected to become a concentration zone of corporate headquarters with well-established commercial, hotel and residential infrastructures, smooth transportation and a beautiful environment;“Software Park Group” has a planned coverage area of about 2.31sqkm and a total construction area of about 1,630,000sqm. It is primarily designed as a software information industrial park and comprises venture and investment organs, the starting zone of artificial intelligence entities and office and commercial facilities; “Wuyuan Bay Medical Office Group” has a total area of about 5.01sqkm and is primarily designed for tourism, commercial, office, medical, retirement and other upstream and downstream medical industries; “Lakeside Residential Group” has a planned total area of 3.67sqkm, including a water area of 1.03sqkm. It is designed as an urban complex zone with full-range accessory infrastructures, primarily for high-end ecological residences and secondarily for commercial and financial facilities.
After years of construction, the area has taken initial shape and the five groups have their respective industrial features. With the continuous deepening of the old village renovation work in the east, its spatial structure and industrial layout will improve gradually.
II. Industries Orientation
The Cross-strait Financial Center Area is designed primarily for financial, office and headquarters economy purposes supported with business and commercial services. Efforts will be made to attract the industry-leading emerging financial enterprises, including financial science and technology, wealth management and green finance, with an aim to turn the area into a high-end business zone with the financial industry and headquarters economy as its core.
III. Advantages of the Area
1. Beautiful Ecological Environment as ANew Signature of Xiamen
Xiamen Island has been developed from west to east. The Cross-strait Financial Center Area is the last seaside area for development on Xiamen Island and therefore enjoys the late mover advantages. According to the plan, the area will include a beautiful financial shoreline and an office and commercial zone with a panorama of the ocean and green scenes.
2. Convenient Transportation
Xianyue Road, East Huandao Road and Huandao Trunk Road comprise the trunk road network of the area. Metro Line #2 crosses the area. It has a bus network within it. The international airport is close by and Xiamen-Jinmen Terminal provides convenient cross-strait transportation services.
3. Provide Topnotch Infrastructures and Well-established Accessory Services
The area is designed with a series of apartment buildings for financial lease and they are expected to provide a low-cost and high-quality living environment for financial talents. Meanwhile, there are also mature medical service facilities here, including Zhongshan Hospital of Fudan University, Wuyuan Comprehensive Hospital, Heart Hospital and other high-end medical facilities.
With reference to the development experiences of world and domestically-leading financial centers, the area is expected to develop high-star hotels, high-end leisure facilities and other accessory facilities in an all-around manner. It has 10+ five-star hotels. Negotiations are going on to attract Four Seasons Hotel, InterContinental Hotel, Banyan Tree Hotel and other high-end hotels. In order to satisfy the leisure and entertainment needs of high-end customers, such projects as Wuyuan Bay Wetland Park (the largest park of Xiamen), Wutong Light House Park and other leisure projects have been completed. There are also relevant accessory sports infrastructures, including Aowangcheng, Sailboat Club and yacht marina.
4. Quality Educational Resources
For child education, the area is designed with quality primary and secondary schools and also international schools and schools for industrial talents’ children in order to address the education of the children of financial talents.
For talent attraction, the area is close to Xiamen National Accounting Institute, Xiamen University and other famous universities and colleges. It is leading domestically in the majors of finance, accounting, fiscal and statistics and these schools of higher education are sustainable sources of talents for industrial development
IV. Investment Promotion Carriers
Plots for investment promotion:The Cross-strait Financial Center Area has 28 plots available for transfer in a coverage area of 430,000sqm and a construction area of 1,330,000sqm.
Properties for investment promotion:There are 44 completed high-end commercial properties, including Vanke YunXi, ITG Financial Center, Haixi Financial Plaza, Strait Pearl Plaza, Guanyinshan Plaza, Xiamen International Financial Center, Tefang Portman Fortune Center, etc., with an area of about 800,000sqm pending for investment.
IV. Policy Support
The Area offers double policy preferences of municipal policies and special policies of the Area, namely preferential policies of Xiamen in terms of land for headquarters enterprises, financial industry, talent policy, information industry, tourism and exhibition, etc., and special policies of the Area in terms of equity investment enterprises in the fund town, financial technology industrial park and private securities investment fund development, etc.
●Several Measures of Xiamen Municipal People's Government for Supporting the Development of Financial Industry (Summary) (X.F. [2019] No. 280)
Headquarters of financial institutions
The headquarters of financial institutions newly incorporated in Xiamen or newly relocated from outside the city will be given lump-sum settlement rewards of up to 50 million yuan as per different types:
Those with paid-in capital of 50 million (inclusive) to 200 million yuan will be rewarded 5 million yuan;
those with 200 million (inclusive) to 500 million yuan will be rewarded 8 million yuan;
those with 500 million (inclusive) to 1 billion yuan will be rewarded 12 million yuan;
those with 1 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 20 million yuan; and
for those with over 1 billion yuan, the reward will be increased by 2 million yuan for every additional 100 million yuan.
For enterprises in Xiamen that merge and reorganize financial institutions from outside the city, and the registration place and the main premises of the reorganized financial institutions move into Xiamen, a lump-sum M&A reward of up to 10 million yuan will be given as per different types of financial institutions:
Those with a M&A transaction amount of 1 billion (inclusive) to 3 billion yuan will be rewarded 2 million yuan;
those with 3 billion (inclusive) to 5 billion yuan will be rewarded 5 million yuan; andthose with above 5 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 10 million yuan.
There is also policy support for specialized financial companies, regional branches that specialize in funds, etc.
●Measures of Xiamen for the Implementation of the Financial Talent Plan (Summary) (X.F.B. [2019] No. 87)
Leading financial talents in the industry
Reward standard: The existing industry-leading financial talents will be rewarded 1 million yuan; and the introduced ones will be rewarded 2 million yuan.
Each entity may recommend one person to apply within 5 years; if the affirmed talent has left office during his/her term of office, the entity may recommend another person after his/her departure.
Senior elite financial talents
Reward standard: The introduced senior elite financial talents will be rewarded 1.6 million yuan; and the existing ones will be rewarded 800,000 yuan;
Each entity may recommend one person to apply each year.
Young backbone financial talents
Reward standard: The existing young backbone financial talents will be rewarded 400,000 yuan; and the introduced ones will be rewarded 800,000 yuan.
Each entity may recommend 1-3 persons to apply each year subject to the scale, tax and other conditions.
Talents introduced flexibly
Reward standard: The financial talents introduced flexibly whose service time is over half a year will be given a subsidiary of up to 150,000 yuan at 15% of the total personal salary according to their working hours in Xiamen, actual contribution, and salary package, etc.
Taiwan talents
Taiwan financial talents who hold middle-level and above management positions in financial institutions, large financial holding companies or financial research institutes (think tanks) registered in Xiamen, and whose annual salary is more than 6 times the average salary of on-the-job employees in urban entities of Xiamen last year, will be given an annual subsidy of 80,000 yuan.
●Notice of Xiamen Municipal People's Government on Issuing the Several Measures for Promoting the Development of Equity Investment Industry (Summary) (X.F. [2019] No. 279)
Equity investment enterprises
The corporate equity investment enterprises newly incorporated in Xiamen or newly relocated from outside the city will be given lump-sum settlement rewards according to the amount of their paid-in registered capital:
Those with paid-in registered capital of more than 100 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 800,000 yuan;
those with more than 500 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 1.5 million yuan;
those with more than 1 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 3 million yuan; and those with more than 2 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 5 million yuan.
For partnership equity investment enterprises newly incorporated in Xiamen or newly relocated from outside the city, the equity investment management enterprise entrusted by them will be given lump-sum settlement rewards for the assets under management according to the actual scale of funds raised by the enterprises:
Those with actual raised funds of more than 100 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 500,000 yuan;
those with more than 500 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 1 million yuan;
those with more than 1 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 1.5 million yuan;
those with more than 2 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 3 million yuan; and those with 3 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 5 million yuan.
●Opinions of Xiamen Municipal People's Government on Accelerating the High-quality Development of Headquarters Economy (Summary) (X.W.F. [2020] No. 12)
Headquarters enterprises
Reward for business contribution: Rewards for business contribution will be given for ten consecutive years according to the local retained portion of annual enterprise income tax and value-added tax from the year of recognition.
For headquarters enterprises, for the portion within 50 million yuan in first five years, the reward proportion will be 70%;
for the portion of more than 50 million yuan, the reward proportion will be 80%; and the reward proportion in the last five years will be halved respectively.
Growth enterprises
Reward for business contribution: For the portion within 100 million yuan in first five years, the reward proportion will be 60%;
for the portion of more than 100 million yuan, the reward proportion will be 70%; and the reward proportion in the last five years will be halved respectively.
Enterprises whose local retained portion of annual enterprise income tax and value-added tax reaches 50 million yuan for the first time will be given a lump-sum reward of 5 million yuan; and those reaching 100 million yuan for the first time will be given a lump-sum reward of 10 million yuan. The cumulative maximum amount of rewards available to the same enterprise shall not exceed 10 million yuan.
●Opinions of Xiamen Municipal People's Government on Accelerating the High-quality Development of Headquarters Economy (X.W.F. [2020] No. 12)
The headquarters or regional headquarters applying for the land shall promise a local retained portion of not less than 80 million yuan of the actually paid income tax and value-added tax in Xiamen every year for not less than 10 years from the third year at the least after winning the bid for the land.
The headquarters or regional headquarters that meet the requirements may apply for obtaining the headquarters project land with the capacity building area of up to 50,000 sqm and the minimum division unit of not less than 500 sqm through bidding, auction and listing.
They shall undertake to have a self-holding proportion of not less than 70% within ten years from the date of acquiring the property right, and shall not change the use. The remaining 30% can only be sold until the requirements related to the destocking cycle of commercial office inventory are met. For those promising a local retained portion of more than 100 million yuan of income tax and value-added tax in Xiamen, an increase of 5,000 sqm of capacity building area can be applied for every additional 10 million yuan.
●Measures for the Development of Equity Investment Enterprises in the Fund Town of Xiamen Free Trade Area
Settlement reward
Corporate equity investment enterprises
Those with paid-in registered capital of more than 50 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 400,000 yuan;
those with more than 100 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 800,000 yuan;
those with more than 500 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 1.5 million yuan;
those with more than 1 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 3 million yuan; and
those with more than 2 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 5 million yuan.
Partnership equity investment enterprises
Those with actual raised funds of more than 50 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 200,000 yuan;
those with more than 100 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 500,000 yuan;
those with more than 500 million yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 1 million yuan;
those with more than 1 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 1.5 million yuan;
those with more than 2 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 3 million yuan; and those with 3 billion yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded 5 million yuan.
Operation reward
① For enterprises whose amount of equity investment in entity enterprises in Xiamen reaches more than 30 million yuan (inclusive) and who have been identified as qualified, an operation reward will be given at 1% of the amount of investment in the enterprise in Xiamen to the equity investment management enterprise entrusted by them, with a cumulative amount of up to 20 million yuan.
② A reward will be given at 90% of the local retained portion of the enterprise income tax or individual income paid on the basis of the equity transfer income (including the equity transfer income and the investment income share obtained by the management enterprise) during the period of existence.
Rent subsidy
Those who rent office space for their own use will be given rent-free support for a certain area for three consecutive years.
The subsidy amount shall be up to 1 million yuan per year.
The identified private equity investment fund enterprises can enjoy the above rent subsidy by reference.
Risk subsidy
For equity investment enterprises investing in micro, small and medium-sized innovative enterprises at the start-up stage in Xiamen that suffer investment losses resulted by liquidation or impairment withdrawal due to investment failure, a risk subsidy will be given at 20% of their actual investment losses. An individual project will be given a subsidy of up to 2 million yuan, while the cumulative risk subsidy for the same equity investment enterprise shall not exceed 5 million yuan.
Talent reward
For senior managements and elites in the Fund Town who pay more than 80,000 yuan of annual individual income tax for their wages and salaries will be rewarded according to the local retained portion of the individual income tax. Those with annual individual income tax less than 80,000 yuan (inclusive) will be rewarded at 50%; those with 80,000 to 250,000 yuan will be rewarded at 75%; and those with more than 250,000 yuan will be rewarded at 90%.
●Administration Measures for the Development of Xiamen Financial Technology Industrial Park
Applicable objects: Financial technology enterprises registered in Xiamen Financial Technology Industrial Park, paying taxes in the city and having independent legal personality.
Rent subsidy: A subsidy will be given at 15% or 30% of the actual rent paid annually, depending on the type of enterprise, for three years from the month when the first VAT is paid.
Business contribution: For those whose local retained portion of annual enterprise income tax and value-added tax reaches 50 million yuan within five years from the year of the first VAT payment, a reward will be given at 60-80% for the retained portion according to the ladder.
Living allowance: For qualified talents of bachelor’s degree, master’s degree and doctoral degree, an allowance will be given at 20,000 yuan, 30,000 yuan and 50,000 yuan per person, respectively.
