China's Minister of Commerce Gao Hucheng(center) waves to journalists at a news conference during the ongoing two sessions in Beijing, March 7, 2015. [Wang Jing/ chinadaily.com.cn]

China will reform laws on foreign investment

China will reform the laws on foreign investment to create a more stable, transparent and predicable legal framework for investment, said Gao Hucheng, Minister of Commerce, on Saturday at a press conference.

The three laws governing foreign investment, the Law on Sino-foreign Equity Joint Ventures, the Law on Wholly Foreign-owned Enterprises and the Law on Sino-foreign Corporative Joint Ventures, was promulgated during the initial phase of China's reform and opening-up.

Gao said laws have contributed a lot to in attracting foreign investment, but some articles and contents cannot keep up with the current development.

The ministry released the draft law in January, and will revise and improve it to promulgate it as soon as possible, said Gao.

Background information: China targets 6 percent rise of foreign trade

China sets a target to increase imports and exports by around 6 percent, said the Government Work Report delivered by Premier Li Keqiang

The government will transform and upgrade China's foreign trade, improve the mechanism for sharing the cost of export tax rebates between the central and local government, with the central government paying all the year's increase over last year for the benefit of local governments and exporting enterprises, the report said.

The report said that the government will implement policies and measures to enable China's foreign trade to develop new competitive edges, and will take a more active, more effective approach to making use of foreign capital.

The focus will be on making the service and manufacturing sectors even more open by halving the number of industries in which foreign investment is restricted, the report said.

China will speed up the implementation of the "go global" strategy and encourage Chinese companies to participate in overseas infrastructure development projects and engage in cooperation with their foreign counterparts in building up production capacity.

According to the report, China will work to increase the international market share of Chinese railway, electric power, communications, engineering machinery, automobile, aircraft, electronics, and other equipment, and encourage the metallurgical, building materials and other industries to invest overseas.

China will work with the relevant countries to develop the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road and will promote multilateral, bilateral, and regional opening up and cooperation.

This year, the central government will increase its budgetary investment to 477.6 billion yuan, according to the report.