China relaxes e-commerce investor rules for foreigners

An advertisement for e-commerce retailer JD.com Inc in Shanghai. [Photo/China Daily]

BEIJING - China has decided to give foreign investors greater freedom in the booming e-commerce industry by allowing them to fully own e-commerce companies in the country, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced Friday.

The MIIT said in a brief statement that it would open up the online data processing and transaction processing businesses to foreign investors.

The new policy will enable more foreign companies to compete with local firms, thereby driving the sector to higher standards, the MIIT said.

The move is an expansion of a pilot scheme launched in January in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone.

Currently, China's lucrative e-commerce business is dominated by big homegrown firms. The e-commerce market hit 13.4 trillion yuan (2.2 trillion US dollars) in 2014, and China is aiming to almost double the value of the sector in two years.