China in action to stabilize foreign investment

BEIJING - China is ramping up efforts to bolster the stability of foreign investment by promoting work resumption of foreign-funded firms and projects as well as opening wider to foreign investors.

Some 60 percent of major foreign-invested manufacturing firms and over 40 percent of key foreign-funded service providers out of Hubei province had recovered over 70 percent of work capacity as of March 12, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

Chinese authorities vowed to further facilitate the work resumption of foreign firms. The National Development and Reform Commission urged efforts to address the difficulties in work resumption to help firms return to full capacity at the earliest possible time and advance major foreign-invested projects, while the MOC stressed measures to enhance firms' sense of gain.

The country is also beefing up wider opening-up to foreign investment. Revision of the negative list on foreign investment is underway as part of the plan to shorten the negative list and expand the catalog of industries where foreign investment is encouraged.

New editions of the list will probably be released in May, expanding market access of the tertiary sector, such as health care, aged service, finance, transportation, logistics, tourism, education and training and value-added services of telecommunications, said Zhang Fei with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (CAITEC).

China will accelerate the opening of industrial and supply chains with weak links, encourage investment to better meet the needs of domestic consumption upgrade and support firms to invest in the central, western and northeastern regions, said Pang Chaoran, a researcher with the CAITEC.

Zhang also noted foreign enterprises are focusing on opportunities in the industries of biomedicine, public health, artificial intelligence, 5G network and industrial Internet as demands emerged amid the epidemic.

The country will continue improving the business environment and enhancing the stability of foreign investment, said Ye Wei, an official with the MOC.

Foreign-invested companies in China are regaining confidence supported by a string of opening-up measures, despite the impact of the epidemic. Retail giant Costco, for example, has announced to open a second store on the Chinese mainland in Shanghai, while Starbucks will build a coffee innovation park in eastern China's Jiangsu province.