Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment

Increasing Efforts to Attract Foreign Investment

In the first half of 2023, 24,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established, up 35.7%; the share of high-tech industries attracting capital reached 39.4%; and the actual use of foreign capital amounted to 703.65 billion CNY.

The State Council recently issued the Opinions on Further Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment and Strengthening the Efforts to Attract Foreign Investment. These call for better integration of the two major domestic and international situations, the creation of a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, rule of law-oriented and internationalized, and giving full play to China's advantage in market size, and attracting and making use of foreign investment in a stronger and more effective manner.

The document puts forward 24 policy measures in six areas, including improving the quality of utilizing foreign investment, guaranteeing national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises, continuously strengthening the protection of foreign investment, improving the level of facilitation of investment and operation, increasing financial and tax support, and improving the method for promoting foreign investment.

In the second half of 2023, the Ministry of Commerce will continue the "Year of Investing in China" investment promotion campaign, coordinate foreign investment promotion resources, and optimize the method of foreign investment promotion.

In accordance with the the State Council directives, the Ministry of Commerce has recently upgraded the establishment of the Foreign-invested Enterprises Round-table System, relying on the Coordinating Service Mechanism for Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, in order to further expand the channels for collecting problems and listening to opinions, and to respond to and resolve the concerns of enterprises in a timely manner. At the end of July, the Ministry of Commerce also formulated a guidance document for the round table of foreign-funded enterprises and issued it for implementation in various places, so as to establish the round table system for foreign-funded enterprises at the provincial level and as needed at lower governmental levels.