On 19 Mar. 2024, the General Office of the State Council issued the “Action Plan for Steadily Advancing High-level Opening Up and Making Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment” (扎实推进高水平对外开放更大力度吸引和利用外资行动方案, hereinafter the “Action Plan”), which demonstrates the Chinese government’s emphasis on attracting foreign investment and aims to boost overseas investors’ confidence in investing in China through practical measures.
The Action Plan outlines 24 measures in five areas, with “expanding market access and enhancing foreign investment liberalization” as the first priority. It explicitly proposes reasonable reductions in the negative list for foreign investment, pilot programs to relax market access for foreign investment in the scientific and technological innovation field, expansion of access for foreign-funded financial institutions in banking and insurance sectors, expansion of the business scope of foreign-funded financial institutions to participate in the domestic bond market, and the implementation of pilot programs for qualified foreign limited partners to make domestic investments.
For instance, in the field of foreign investment access in scientific and technological innovation, it allows free trade pilot zones in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong, and others to select eligible foreign-invested enterprises to conduct expanded opening-up trials in areas such as gene diagnosis and treatment technology development and application. Opening-up policies in areas such as information services (limited to app stores) are to be implemented in free trade pilot zones.
Photo by Hanson Lu on Unsplash
Contributors: CJO Staff Contributors Team
