More effort needed on investment

Nation to establish fair, transparent environment

China will reduce foreign investment restrictions and further open up its education, culture and finance sectors to build a fair and transparent environment for foreign investors, an official said on Tuesday.

The nation’s foreign investment situation has been “grim” this year amid the complex global and domestic economic environments, but the country will step up efforts to attract foreign investment, Vice Minister of Commerce Wang Shouwen told a briefing on Tuesday.

In the first seven months of 2016, inbound foreign investment stood at 491.5 billion yuan ($ 77.13 billion), up 4.3 percent year- on- year, data from the Ministry of Commerce ( MOFCOM) showed on August 17.

It said that 2,400 foreign companies were newly established in the country in July, down nearly 5.2 percent month- on- month.

China will further open up its edu- cation, culture and finance sectors to foreign investors, Wang said, noting related departments are discussing applying a negative- list approach across the country.

A negative list shows sectors that remain off- limits to foreign investment. That system is now applied in pilot free trade zones in Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong and Fujian provinces.

Bai Ming, a research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said the country is opening more and more sectors with the development of its market- oriented economy.

Meanwhile, the country will reduce foreign investment restrictions and speed up system- wide reforms to create a fair, transparent and stable environment for foreign investors.

And foreign companies in China help boost the stable and sound development of the country’s economy.

Foreign- backed companies contribute to nearly half of the country’s foreign trade, one- fourth of its indus- trial output and one- fifth of revenue tax, said a press release the MOFCOM sent to the Global Times on Tuesday.

China will continue to be one of the most attractive investment destinations from 2016 to 2018, according to a poll by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in June.

Bai said China’s inbound foreign investment would be stable in the remaining months of 2016 if economic growth stays above 6.5 percent and no serious fluctuations take place in the domestic foreign exchange, stock or property markets.

China’s non- financial outbound direct investment ( ODI) soared 61.8 percent year- on- year to 673.2 billion yuan in the first seven months of 2016, according to MOFCOM data.

ODI is mainly conducted in the form of mergers and acquisitions, with 459 deals covering 63 countries and regions carried out during the January- July period, surpassing the full- year data of 2015.