Recently, the State Council issued the Notice on Several Measures to Expand Opening up and Actively Utilize Foreign Capital. In an interview with reporters, the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that China will focus on promoting the service industry, manufacturing industry, mining industry and other fields to relax foreign investment access restrictions, and actively attract foreign investment, advanced technology and management experience.
The use of foreign capital is a basic national policy of opening up and an important part of the open economic system. It is understood that since 1993, China has always ranked first among developing countries in attracting foreign capital. It has remained in the top three in the world since 2008. By the end of 2016, China had attracted more than 1.77 trillion dollars of foreign capital. In 2016, against the backdrop of a decline in the global total amount of transnational investment, China attracted 813.22 billion yuan of foreign investment, an increase of 4.2% year on year. In particular, the actual investment in China from the United States and the 28 EU countries increased significantly, up 52.6% and 41.3% year on year respectively.
According to the person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, the main policy orientation for China's future use of foreign capital is to adhere to open development, promote a new round of high-level opening up, and promote reform and development through opening up. Second, we are committed to optimizing the business environment and further promoting fair competition between domestic and foreign enterprises. The third is to promote the combination of attracting capital, technology and intelligence, enhance the attraction to foreign capital in manufacturing, build an open innovation system, and improve the quality and level of foreign capital utilization. Fourth, we will build a unified market system, strengthen and optimize services, and encourage foreign-funded enterprises to deepen their development. Fifthly, we will intensify reform, simplify the approval and supervision system for foreign capital in accordance with the principle of consistency between domestic and foreign capital, and improve investment facilitation.
It is worth noting that the Measures clearly put forward that we will focus on the service industry, manufacturing industry, mining industry and other fields to relax foreign investment access restrictions, and actively attract foreign investment, advanced technology and management experience. The person in charge said that at present, the National Development and Reform Commission is revising the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries again, and plans to reduce the 93 restrictive measures in the 2015 version of the Catalogue to 62. The revised version of the Catalogue has been online for comments.
In terms of creating a fair competition environment, the Several Measures propose that the foreign investment policy must be subject to fair competition review and public consultation in advance, and all regions and departments shall not increase restrictions on foreign-funded enterprises without authorization. "This ensures the transparency, stability, predictability and consistency of implementation of the policy from the institutional perspective." Several Measures also require the implementation of unified standards for domestic and foreign enterprises in business license review, standard formulation, government procurement, financing channels, registration and other aspects, so as to promote the fair participation of all kinds of enterprises.
In order to strengthen the attraction of foreign capital, the Several Measures allow local governments to formulate and issue preferential policies for investment attraction within the scope of legal authority, support projects that make great contributions to employment, economic development and technological innovation, and reduce enterprise investment and operating costs. The person in charge said, "This is an authorization for local governments. We hope that local governments can take the initiative to work more actively, constantly standardize in the development, and achieve better development in the standardization. This measure applies not only to foreign capital, but also to domestic capital."
In response to the concerns about the recent withdrawal of some foreign-funded enterprises, especially those in the manufacturing industry, the person in charge said that, based on a comprehensive analysis of the current data on the inflow and outflow of foreign capital, the overall situation of China's utilization of foreign capital is good, and the fundamentals have not changed. According to the 2016 World Investment Report, China is still one of the most attractive investment host countries in the world. China has a stable political society, a huge domestic market, complete infrastructure, complete industrial facilities, sufficient human resources, and constantly improved legal system. The comprehensive investment environment is still attractive for foreign investment. "At the same time, we should also see that China's utilization of foreign capital is in a critical period of advantage transformation and structural adjustment. With the rising factor costs, some foreign-funded manufacturing enterprises are moving outward. To this end, we should not only look at this law of economic development objectively, but also actively respond to it, improve our institutional environment, and create greater space for the development of foreign-funded enterprises." Recently, The State Council issued the Notice on Several Measures to Expand Opening up and Actively Utilize Foreign Capital. In an interview with reporters, the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that China will focus on promoting the service industry, manufacturing industry, mining industry and other fields to relax foreign investment access restrictions, and actively attract foreign investment, advanced technology and management experience.
The use of foreign capital is a basic national policy of opening up and an important part of the open economic system. It is understood that since 1993, China has always ranked first among developing countries in attracting foreign capital. It has remained in the top three in the world since 2008. By the end of 2016, China had attracted more than 1.77 trillion dollars of foreign capital. In 2016, against the backdrop of a decline in the global total amount of transnational investment, China attracted 813.22 billion yuan of foreign investment, an increase of 4.2% year on year. In particular, the actual investment in China from the United States and the 28 EU countries increased significantly, up 52.6% and 41.3% year on year respectively.
According to the person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission, the main policy orientation for China's future use of foreign capital is to adhere to open development, promote a new round of high-level opening up, and promote reform and development through opening up. Second, we are committed to optimizing the business environment and further promoting fair competition between domestic and foreign enterprises. The third is to promote the combination of attracting capital, technology and intelligence, enhance the attraction to foreign capital in manufacturing, build an open innovation system, and improve the quality and level of foreign capital utilization. Fourth, we will build a unified market system, strengthen and optimize services, and encourage foreign-funded enterprises to deepen their development. Fifthly, we will intensify reform, simplify the approval and supervision system for foreign capital in accordance with the principle of consistency between domestic and foreign capital, and improve investment facilitation.
It is worth noting that the Measures clearly put forward that we will focus on the service industry, manufacturing industry, mining industry and other fields to relax foreign investment access restrictions, and actively attract foreign investment, advanced technology and management experience. The person in charge said that at present, the National Development and Reform Commission is revising the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries again, and plans to reduce the 93 restrictive measures in the 2015 version of the Catalogue to 62. The revised version of the Catalogue has been online for comments.
In terms of creating a fair competition environment, the Several Measures propose that the foreign investment policy must be subject to fair competition review and public consultation in advance, and all regions and departments shall not increase restrictions on foreign-funded enterprises without authorization. "This ensures the transparency, stability, predictability and consistency of implementation of the policy from the institutional perspective." Several Measures also require the implementation of unified standards for domestic and foreign enterprises in business license review, standard formulation, government procurement, financing channels, registration and other aspects, so as to promote the fair participation of all kinds of enterprises.
In order to strengthen the attraction of foreign capital, the Several Measures allow local governments to formulate and issue preferential policies for investment attraction within the scope of legal authority, support projects that make great contributions to employment, economic development and technological innovation, and reduce enterprise investment and operating costs. The person in charge said, "This is an authorization for local governments. We hope that local governments can take the initiative to work more actively, constantly standardize in the development, and achieve better development in the standardization. This measure applies not only to foreign capital, but also to domestic capital."
In response to the concerns about the recent withdrawal of some foreign-funded enterprises, especially those in the manufacturing industry, the person in charge said that, based on a comprehensive analysis of the current data on the inflow and outflow of foreign capital, the overall situation of China's utilization of foreign capital is good, and the fundamentals have not changed. According to the 2016 World Investment Report, China is still one of the most attractive investment host countries in the world. China has a stable political society, a huge domestic market, complete infrastructure, complete industrial facilities, sufficient human resources, and constantly improved legal system. The comprehensive investment environment is still attractive for foreign investment. "At the same time, we should also see that China's utilization of foreign capital is in a critical period of advantage transformation and structural adjustment. With the rising factor costs, some foreign-funded manufacturing enterprises are moving outward. To this end, we should not only objectively look at this law of economic development, but also actively respond to it, improve our institutional environment, and create greater development space for foreign-funded enterprises."