Development and Reform Commission: Grasp the negative list and implement the expansion of the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment

　　China News Service, September 16th, National Development and Reform Commission spokesperson Meng Wei said on the 16th that the National Development and Reform Commission will effectively implement the negative list to ensure that domestic and foreign companies enjoy equal treatment in areas outside the negative list.

In addition, the National Development and Reform Commission is rushing to revise the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment. The Catalog will further expand the scope of encouraged foreign investment, so that foreign investment projects in more fields can enjoy relevant preferential policies.

　　On the 16th, the National Development and Reform Commission held a regular press conference in September.

At the meeting, a reporter asked: Recently, I have seen many reports of foreign-funded enterprises moving abroad. How does the National Development and Reform Commission view the current situation of using foreign capital? What measures do you plan to take next to stabilize the development of foreign capital in China?

　　Meng Wei said that in recent years, affected by rising factor costs and Sino-US economic and trade frictions, some companies, including foreign-funded enterprises, have adjusted their production layouts on a global scale. This phenomenon should be said to be a normal market behavior.

　　Meng Wei pointed out that since the beginning of this year, due to the impact of the epidemic, global cross-border direct investment has fallen sharply. Against this background, China has achieved significant results in coordinating epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development, and the use of foreign capital has gradually stabilized.

From January to August, the actual utilization of foreign capital was 89 billion U.S. dollars, a year-on-year decrease of 0.3%. Especially since April, the rate of decline in the utilization of foreign capital has narrowed month by month, and the overall utilization of foreign capital has been better than expected.

　　Meng Wei said that on September 9, the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai issued a report stating that most companies continue to be optimistic about the Chinese market, and 78.6% of the interviewed companies said they would not transfer their investment in China, an increase of 5.1 points from last year; on September 10, The European Chamber of Commerce in China released a report stating that EU companies’ investment in China is generally stable, with only 11% of the surveyed companies considering relocating or changing their investment plans, which is close to the lowest level in 10 years.

These data further show that the confidence of foreign companies in investing and operating in China for a long time has not changed.

　　Meng Wei pointed out that in the next step, in accordance with the Party Central Committee’s decision and deployment, the National Development and Reform Commission will work with relevant parties to further deepen opening up, continue to optimize the investment environment, and stabilize foreign businessmen’s confidence in long-term development in China. The focus is on the following tasks.

　　First, implement the negative list.

The 2020 version of the negative list for foreign investment access has further reduced the scope of restrictions and increased the level of openness in the service industry, manufacturing, and agriculture. The National Development and Reform Commission will effectively implement the list to ensure that domestic and foreign companies enjoy equal treatment in areas outside the negative list. .

　　The second is to expand the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment.

At present, the National Development and Reform Commission is rushing to revise the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment. The Catalog will further expand the scope of encouraging foreign investment so that foreign investment projects in more fields can enjoy relevant preferential policies.

　　The third is to do a good job of guaranteeing services for foreign investment projects.

Since April this year, in response to the prominent international travel issues reported by foreign-funded enterprises during the epidemic, the National Development and Reform Commission, together with the Civil Aviation Administration, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Health Commission, has established a charter mechanism for foreign personnel to come to China for major foreign-funded projects. More than 10,000 foreign personnel have entered the country through chartered flights through this mechanism, which has facilitated the smooth implementation of the project.

In the follow-up, the National Development and Reform Commission will continue to actively coordinate and solve the outstanding problems exposed in the implementation of foreign-funded projects.

At the same time, we should promptly improve the coordination mechanism for major foreign investment projects at the local level and strengthen the reserve of follow-up projects.

Take the work of major foreign-funded projects as a demonstration and lead, and comprehensively improve the service level of foreign-funded projects.

　　The fourth is to continuously optimize the foreign investment environment.

The key point is to continue to clean up, revise, and abolish laws, regulations and normative documents that are inconsistent with the Foreign Investment Law, so as to ensure that foreign investment promotion, protection, management and other regulations can be better detailed and implemented.