BEIJING - The Chinese government will further streamline approval procedures for foreigninvestment across the country to better attract overseas investment and improve China'sbusiness environment.
A new legislative guideline was approved during the State Council's executive meeting onSaturday, chaired by Premier Li Keqiang.
"Meanwhile, our country also needs advanced technology and ideas to press ahead withdevelopment," Li once pointed out.
"This is part of the government's crucial efforts in streamlining administration and delegatingpowers, as well as improving our business environment," he said.
The new guideline is a revision and expansion of the present administrative measures for foreigninvestment in China's four Free Trade Zones (FTZ) in Shanghai, Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian,turning the three-year piloting measures into a legislative guideline.
According to the new guideline, those willing to invest in China no longer have to go throughapproval procedures if they invest in non-restricted sectors outlined by the Catalog of Industriesfor Foreign Investment which was approved last year, and do not contradict with the specialrequirements regarding equity rights and level of management.
The new guideline aims to help foreign investors to reduce concern about discriminatoryindustrial policies in China and calls for more effective government services for foreigninvestment.
Li has frequently stressed the importance of encouraging foreign investment, which was mostrecently brought up when he addressed an audience in New York.
"We are paying equal attention to 'bringing in' and 'going global,' and for a developing countrylike China, it is still important to attract massive foreign investment, which helps boost theChinese economy," Li said.
"We hope that China will remain an attractive destination for foreign investment. We need foreigninvestment for economic growth, and more importantly, we need new managerial expertise andadvanced technologies that foreign investment brings," he said.
The "foreign investment negative list" was first applied in Shanghai FTZ in 2013, the first FTZ inChina. It explored paths to better attract overseas investors with the "foreign investment negativelist" guideline, which was made as a temporary administrative measures for FTZ foreigninvestment regulations.
Foreign investors only need to register their investment in the government system via the Internet,as long as their projects are not on the negative list.
This was later applied to the other three FTZs in Guangdong, Tianjin and Fujian, and wasexpected to be revised and applied across the country after three years of piloting.
Official data shows that such measures have greatly boosted foreign investment. From Januaryto August 2016, the actual use of foreign capital in the four FTZs in total reaches 8.59 billion U.S.dollars, accounting for almost 10 percent of the national total.
A third party evaluation also shows the simplified measures have brought vigor for foreigninvestment. Online registration takes only three working days, while the previous approvalprocedures usually takes no less than 20 working days.
Once the new guideline is put into use, administrative procedures required for registration will bereduced by 95 percent.
The decision to revise these regulations was approved by the Standing Committee of theNational People's Congress early in September.
