Ministry of Commerce: will study and promote the rational reduction of negative lists for foreign investment access. Chen Chunjiang | Market | Foreign Investment
On the 14th, Assistant Minister of Commerce Chen Chunjiang stated at the State Council's regular policy briefing that the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments to study and promote the rational reduction of the negative list of foreign investment access, and continue to expand foreign investment market access. Revise the Measures for the Administration of Strategic Investment by Foreign Investors in Listed Companies to further relax restrictions on foreign investors' strategic investment in listed companies.
On that day, the State Council held a routine policy briefing, introducing the Opinions on Further Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment and Increasing the Attraction of Foreign Investment.
Chen Chunjiang pointed out that currently, due to multiple factors, the world economy is experiencing sluggish growth. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development predicts that global foreign direct investment will continue to face downward pressure this year, and the situation faced by China in attracting investment is complex and severe. In this context, combined with factors such as a high base in the same period last year, the actual amount of foreign investment used in China decreased slightly year-on-year in the first half of the year, and the overall scale remained basically stable.
At the same time, Chen Chunjiang also stated that the Chinese economy continues to recover and the super large market holds enormous development potential. China's firm determination to open up, vast market opportunities, complete industrial system, and high-quality business environment are attracting foreign investors to increase their investment in China, and the Chinese market maintains strong attraction to foreign investment. In the first half of this year, China added 23536 foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%. In the second half of the year, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to focus on the following three aspects of work:
One is to focus on strengthening policy support. Guide various regions to implement the "Opinions" issued this time, as well as a series of policy measures previously introduced to support foreign-funded research and development centers and promote investment in the manufacturing industry, to ensure that all policies are implemented and blossomed. Collaborate with relevant departments to study and promote the rational reduction of the negative list of foreign investment access, and continue to expand foreign investment market access. Revise the Measures for the Administration of Strategic Investment by Foreign Investors in Listed Companies to further relax restrictions on foreign investors' strategic investment in listed companies.
The second is to focus on strengthening investment promotion. The Ministry of Commerce will continue to carry out a series of activities for the "Investment in China Year". The purpose of holding these "Investment China Year" local and service industry promotion sessions is to comprehensively showcase the industrial characteristics, resource endowments, and business environment of various regions, support the strengthening of investment docking and project matching, and promote more foreign investors to understand and invest in China.
Thirdly, we will focus on providing excellent service guarantees. Give full play to the role of the specialized team for key foreign investment projects in the coordination and service mechanism for foreign trade and foreign investment, deepen regular exchanges with foreign-funded enterprises and foreign business associations, improve the roundtable meeting system for foreign-funded enterprises at all levels at the local level, actively build platforms to contact and serve foreign-funded enterprises, coordinate and solve the difficulties reflected by foreign-funded enterprises, implement national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises, and strengthen confidence in foreign investment.