Aiming at creating a more optimal investment environment for foreign investors, and effectively enhancing foreign investors’ confidence in investment in China, the State Council announced the Opinions of the State Council on Further Optimizing the Environment for Foreign Investment and Increasing Efforts to Attract Foreign Investment (“Opinions”) on July 25, 2023, and the Opinions came into effect on the same day.
The Opinions cover six aspects, including guaranteeing the national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises, continuously strengthening the protection of foreign investment, improving the facilitation level of investment operation, etc. These aspects are of great importance to foreign investors and they are accompanied by twenty-four supporting measures in the Opinions. Here are the highlights of the Opinions:
First, the Opinions emphasize the optimization of the industrial structure. On the one hand, the Opinions focus on the development of the manufacturing industry, proposing measures such as encouraging foreign-invested enterprises and the R&D centers established thereby to undertake major scientific research projects and so on. On the other hand, the Opinions attach great importance to the demonstration and leading role of the service industry, supporting the development of domestic Internet virtual private network businesses, information service businesses, and other value-added telecommunication services businesses.
Second, the Opinions encourage cross-border flows. The Opinions not only encourage pilot regions to explore a convenient security management mechanism for cross-border data flow which helps promote the safe and orderly transfer of data, but also provide measures for optimizing the stopover and residence policies for foreign employees of foreign-invested enterprises, making it more convenient for the employees of foreign-invested enterprises and their families to enter, leave and stay in China.
Third, the Opinions clarify the significance of guaranteeing the national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises. Measures like guaranteeing the participation of foreign-invested enterprises in government procurement activities and supporting foreign-invested enterprises in equally participating in standard-setting show that China government is sparing no effort to ensure that foreign-invested enterprises can equally enjoy supporting policies in China.
The introduction of the Opinions provides directional and practical guidance for the foreign-invested enterprises to expand investment in China and can also contribute to attracting foreign investment for China.