China to further open up market for foreign businesses

China will further open up its vast domestic market for foreign businesses through a slew of measures, including removing all restrictions on foreign investments in the manufacturing industry and expanding access to sectors such as healthcare and telecommunications, officials from two Chinese ministries said on Monday.

Amid China’s continuous efforts to expand market access and improve the environment for foreign businesses, coupled with the country’s steady economic recovery, foreign businesses’ confidence in the Chinese market continues to improve, as has been shown by their expanded investment in the country. 

During a multinational business dialogue hosted by China Media Group (CMG) on Monday, Ling Ji, vice minister of commerce and deputy China international trade representative, said that the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) will work with various departments and localities to continue to build the “Invest in China” brand and increase efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment. 

“We will further expand foreign investment access, reasonably reduce the negative list for foreign investment access, comprehensively remove restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector, increase foreign investment access in medical, telecommunications and other fields, and increase the list of industries that encourage foreign investment,” Ling said, according to CMG.

China will also make revisions to regulations for foreign investors’ strategic investment in publicly traded companies, so as to further expand the room for foreign investment, according to the MOFCOM official. 

At the same dialogue on Monday, Xin Guobin, vice minister of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), also said that the ministry fully implements high-level opening-up policies and strongly supports the development of multinational companies in China.   

The MIIT is implementing measures to fully remove restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing industry, and has launched a pilot project to expand the opening up of value-added telecommunications services to foreign businesses, bringing a new opening-up chapter in the industrial and information technology fields, according to Xin. 

The MIIT will continue to improve the business environment, fully implement national treatment for foreign businesses, and support multinational companies to participate equally in standard setting and key research and development projects, the MIIT official said.

As China has stepped up efforts to attract foreign investment, including expanding market access, many foreign businesses have expressed confidence in the prospects for the Chinese market and have expanded or plan to expand investment in the country. 

In the first five months of 2024, the number of newly established foreign funded businesses in China grew by 17.4 percent year-on-year to 21,764, even though the total amount of foreign investment dropped, according to latest data from MOFCOM. 

Significantly, in high-tech manufacturing increased sharply. For example, foreign investment in consumer equipment manufacturing jumped by 332.9 percent, while the amount for the professional and technical services sector surged by 103.1 percent, according to MOFCOM. 

Meanwhile, in terms of investment origin, the investment from Germany expanded by 24.2 percent, while from Singapore it increased by 16.2 percent, the data showed.