Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has unswervingly promoted high-level opening to the outside world, and continued to create a market-oriented, legalized and internationalized business environment, which has provided broader development opportunities for foreign businessmen in China. Confidence and determination are growing stronger.
Improve the ease of doing business
On March 29 this year, Tencel Group's Red Bull Beverage Production Base Project started in Neijiang, Sichuan, with a total investment of 2 billion yuan and a designed annual production capacity of 1.44 billion cans. This project is an important part of Thailand's Tencel Group's investment plan in China.
Feeling the continuous optimization of China's business environment, Tencel Group announced in 2020 that it will make a series of new investments in its business in China within three years, including deepening the partnership in China, setting up a new representative office in China, Expansion of new production bases and the introduction of more new products.
This is a typical portrayal of foreign investment in China in recent years.
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, my country has implemented a series of policies and measures to promote the liberalization and facilitation of foreign investment, which has greatly lowered the investment threshold and continuously improved the attractiveness of foreign investors.
The degree of openness has been further improved.
For example, in the automotive field, in 2018, the restrictions on foreign ownership of special vehicles and new energy vehicles were lifted; in 2020, the restrictions on foreign shares in commercial vehicles were lifted; in 2022, the restrictions on foreign shares in passenger vehicles were further lifted, realizing the full opening of the automotive industry. .
On March 25 this year, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce issued a notice on the issuance of the "Market Access Negative List (2022 Edition)", which listed 6 prohibited access items and 111 permitted access items, a total of 117 items. Compared with the "Market Access Negative List (2020 Edition)", there are 6 fewer items.
Previously, from 2017 to 2021, my country has revised the negative list of national and pilot free trade zones for five consecutive years. The length of the list has been continuously shortened, and the management system has been continuously improved, giving foreign investment in China clearer expectations.
The level of investment facilitation has been continuously enhanced.
In 2021, the Ministry of Commerce will issue the "Guidelines for Foreign Investment in China (2021 Edition)", which integrates China's investment environment, relevant legal systems, investment procedures, etc., and researches and formulates investment strategies for foreign-funded enterprises and foreign investors in China, and conducts investment and business activities. Provide convenience.
Improve the service capabilities of foreign-funded enterprises and projects.
Since 2018, the National Development and Reform Commission has taken the lead in setting up a special class for major foreign-funded projects with relevant departments and local governments to coordinate and solve the problems existing in the implementation of the project. policies, listen to the demands of all parties, and respond to the concerns of foreign-funded enterprises.
In response to the phenomenon that the epidemic has affected the production and business activities of enterprises, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments and local governments, has actively taken measures to help enterprises relieve their difficulties, especially foreign-funded enterprises in key areas of the epidemic, and coordinate solutions for resumption of work and production, entry of personnel, logistics and transportation, etc. specific issues.
Driven by a series of policies and measures to stabilize foreign investment, many foreign businessmen continue to increase their investment in China.
In 2021, for the first time in history, China's foreign investment will exceed the one trillion yuan mark, reaching 1.1 trillion yuan, an increase far higher than the global average.
Yin Zheng, global executive vice president of Schneider Electric and president of China, sighed: "In recent years, China has continued to expand and open up, the business environment has been continuously optimized, and the degree of investment liberalization and facilitation has continued to improve. China is already Schneider Electric's second largest market in the world. , Schneider Electric has the confidence to carry out long-term planning and development in China."
Improve the rule of law business environment
Since the 18th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China has comprehensively deepened reforms, continuously improved the socialist market economic system and legal system, and through the full implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and related supporting regulations, has created a more law-based business environment for foreign investors and foreign-invested enterprises. business environment.
In 2016, based on the reproducible and popularized experience obtained in the pilot free trade zone, the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress revised the "Three Laws on Foreign Investment", and established in the law that foreign-invested enterprises should implement the pre-entry national treatment plus negative list management system, and the free The reform pilot experience in the trade pilot zone was extended to the whole country.
In December 2018, the draft Foreign Investment Law was submitted to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation for the first time.
On March 15, 2019, as China's first unified basic law in the field of foreign investment, the Foreign Investment Law was deliberated and passed at the Second Session of the Thirteenth National People's Congress, and will be officially implemented on January 1, 2020.
At the same time, there are also supporting regulations for the implementation of the Foreign Investment Law.
The Supreme People's Court also issued a judicial interpretation of the Foreign Investment Law.
At the same time, various regions and departments have thoroughly cleaned up the regulatory documents that are inconsistent with the Foreign Investment Law, and formulated, revised and abolished more than 500 regulatory documents.
The Ministry of Commerce and other relevant departments have also successively introduced measures to improve the complaint work mechanism for foreign-funded enterprises, improve the complaint work network, help foreign-funded enterprises to coordinate and resolve a series of complaints, and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment.
The implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and the improvement of related systems signify that my country's foreign investment legal system has become increasingly mature and gradually improved, giving foreign investment great autonomy, which is not only conducive to simplifying foreign investment procedures and investing in areas outside the list. The approval process makes the field of foreign investment wider, and is also conducive to standardizing and promoting foreign investment behavior, stimulating their enthusiasm and initiative in investment, and making investment expectations more stable and confident.
L’Oréal China CEO Fei Borui said that the formulation and implementation of the Foreign Investment Law is an important arrangement for China to transform from the opening of commodities and factors to the opening of rules and systems, and fully protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in China. It demonstrates China's determination and action to embrace the world and promote economic globalization. It will provide broad opportunities for companies from all countries to cooperate in China and promote the in-depth development of bilateral and multilateral cooperation.
Benchmarking the international first-class level
In recent years, in the process of optimizing the business environment, my country has benchmarked against the prevailing international rules, focused on referring to the World Bank business environment report, actively promoted the internationalization process of business environment construction, sorted out its own shortcomings and weaknesses one by one, and formulated key reforms. Task ledger, and constantly narrow the gap with the world-class business environment.
Since 2013, 21 free trade pilot zones have been established in batches, and the Hainan Free Trade Port has been built, forming a pilot pattern covering east, west, north, south, and center.
Open up the new highland "multi-point blooming", and in the process of construction, the standard international economic and trade rules will be raised in many fields.
Building a "single window" for international trade is an important measure to promote trade facilitation and improve the business environment at ports.
In February 2014, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone took the lead in launching a pilot project in China to promote the overall improvement of the customs clearance efficiency of enterprises.
Today, this innovation has long been replicated and extended to the whole country.
The World Bank's 2019 Doing Business Report recommends reform measures such as the "Single Window" for international trade implemented by Shanghai to the world.
At the same time, the respective pilot trade zones have stepped up pressure testing, intensified reform efforts, and made new progress in institutional opening up, opening up new space, and speeding up the construction of an institutional system that is linked to international prevailing rules. and regulatory models.
For example, to promote the construction of special customs supervision areas, to carry out the pilot project of the integrated domestic and foreign currency bank account system, and to strengthen the integration of commercial disputes and other fields with international common rules.
On January 1, 2022, the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement came into force.
The "Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement" aims at a comprehensive, modern, high-quality and inclusive free trade agreement, benchmarking against international high-level free trade rules, and has formed more open, free and transparent economic and trade rules in the region, covering goods trade, service trade and investment, etc.
China participated in the whole process of negotiation and played a positive and constructive role, made a high-level commitment to openness, reached a negative list for investment in economic and trade negotiations for the first time, included regulations on data flow in an international agreement for the first time, and fully included it in a free trade agreement for the first time. Intellectual Property Protection.
In addition, China has also actively applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement to accelerate the construction of a high-standard free trade area network facing the world.
In the context of the increasingly complex external environment, my country's business environment with increasing marketization, rule of law, and internationalization level is increasingly attractive to foreign businessmen; foreign businessmen are also increasing their investment in China and firmly embracing the Chinese market.
Yuan Yong