China's State Council, the country's cabinet, announced on Thursday further opening-up measures in six trial cities across various areas, including tourism, cultural and telecom industries.
These measures, which come after a series of opening-up policies such as visa-free entry, demonstrate China's commitment to increasing its pace of opening-up and will further boost foreign investment sentiment in the country, experts said.
The six cities are Shenyang in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province, Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province and Chengdu Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
These pilot cities will implement temporarily adjusted provisions in certain industries, allowing foreign investments to greater access in aged care, travel, telecom, entertainment and live performance businesses.
For example, foreign investment can establish non-profit aged care institutions in Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
Foreign investments are also allowed to set up travel agencies in Shenyang, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu and operate outbound travel business in areas excluding China's Taiwan island.
Local cultural department authorities in Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Chengdu will have the authority to approve foreign live performance groups to perform in these cities while in the past it will go through the approval from the central level.
In the telecom sector, Shenyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu will open up virtual private network or VPN services for foreign investment through joint ventures.
In recent years, foreign investment in China's service sector has grown rapidly. As Chinese people become wealthier, there has seen a significant increase in demand for services such as aged care, quality of life improvements, various value-added services, Zhang Yansheng, chief researcher of China Center for International Economic Exchanges, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Zhang noted that the pilot cities are well selected as they are among China's new first-tier cities, which are well-developed and possess unique strengths, making them highly appealing to foreign capital.
The move, following recent sweeping opening-up measures such as visa-free policies, showcased China's vigorous efforts and confidence to be an open economy, Hu Qimu, a deputy secretary-general of the Digital-Real Economies Integration Forum 50, told the Global Times on Thursday.
Hu highlighted the steadfast recovery of China's tourism sector. Both foreign visitors' arrivals and domestic travelers' journeys have placed higher demands on service capabilities, Hu said, noting that the move will stimulate the tourism boom in these pilot cities and meet the rising international travel demands.
"Expanding opening-up will not only meet China's industrial development needs but also offer vast potential to foreign investors to share the country's market dividends," Hu said.
China has rolled out multiple policies to attract foreign investment this year.
China recorded 14.64 million inbound trips made by foreigners in the first half of this year, up 152.7 percent year-on-year, following measures introduced since January, the National Immigration Administration announced on July 5, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
In March, the government released an action plan proposing 24 measures, including measures to expand market access, foster a level playing field and facilitate the flow of innovation factors.
Foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, totaled 412.5 billion yuan ($57.94 billion) in the first five months of 2024, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.
A total of 21,764 new foreign-invested firms were established across China in the reporting period, an increase of 17.4 percent, the data showed.
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