China will lift restrictions on foreign investment in its industrial sector as part of Beijing’s opening-up policy, a Chinese government spokesman said on Friday, the official Xinhua news agency reported.
China will “take new measures” to ease market access and improve the business environment for foreign companies, Zhu Bin, director general of the Commerce Ministry’s foreign investment administration department, said at a news conference.
The official said the range of industries that can attract foreign investment would be expanded and that progress would be made in the “orderly opening” of specific sectors such as telecommunications, the Internet, education, culture and health care.
To this end, the rules will be revised to provide greater support for long-term, high-quality investments in the Asian country’s capital markets.
Zhu assured that China continues to be an attractive destination for foreign capital and that it keeps its advantages “intact,” among which he highlighted its “solid” economic foundation, its “huge” market, high-quality industrial supplies, and the “exceptional talent” available in its labor market.
Foreign direct investment in China fell 29.1% in the first half of the year from a year earlier to 498.91 billion yuan (64.134 billion euros), according to official figures, although officials quoted by local media say this is only a “temporary” decline.
According to a recent report cited by Hong Kong-based daily South China Morning Post, by 2023, six major Southeast Asian economies (Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam) will overtake China in FDI: $206 billion versus $43 billion.
Additionally, according to the same source, these countries attracted 37% more foreign direct investment between 2018 and 2022, compared to 10% from China.
This is due to the diversification strategy that many companies are pursuing and the decline in China’s competitiveness due to increased costs and the impact of tariffs imposed by the US and other countries on imports from China.
Author: Lusa
Source: CM Jornal
I am Michael Melvin, an experienced news writer with a passion for uncovering stories and bringing them to the public. I have been working in the news industry for over five years now, and my work has been published on multiple websites. As an author at 24 News Reporters, I cover world section of current events stories that are both informative and captivating to read.