Business: New law to ease foreign concerns

MOFCOM pledges transparent legal environment

China will work out a new and better law for foreign capital, fully demonstrating the nation’s determination to attract foreign investment, a Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesman said Thursday.

“We want to promote opening-up through legislation, by trying to create a stable and transparent legal environment for foreign companies,” said Gao Feng, spokesman for MOFCOM, at a regular briefing held in Beijing.

The fundamental purpose is to protect foreign investors, Gao noted.

“The government will accelerate the unification of laws and rules for domestic and foreign capital. Meanwhile a new fundamental law on foreign capital will be rolled out, showing that the government is determined to open up more to the outside and attract foreign capital,” he said.

There is no need for foreign companies to worry about or question China’s investment environment, Gao explained.

“We’ll make more efforts to strengthen the convenience of investment, rather than making it more complicated,” he said.

The comments came after a report released on Tuesday by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China suggested that more needs to be done to open domestic markets to the outside world.

The report expressed the concerns of EU companies about an increasingly complicated investment environment and areas being closed off to foreign investment.

Meanwhile, China hopes the EU will maintain an open market and create a good business environment for foreign investment, including from China, Gao said.

As EU is an important destination for Chinese companies’ investment, the EU’s overall stance in welcoming foreign capital is appreciated, according to Gao.

“We will watch EU legislative moves closely,” he said.

As of July, China’s accumulated investment volume in the EU reached $75.7 billion, data from MOFCOM showed.

Jean-Claude Juncker, president of the European Commission, the executive arm of the EU, proposed a new EU framework for investment screening on September 13 in his State of the Union address.

He expressed the need for “full transparency” when foreign and state-owned businesses from outside the EU buy European companies in sectors such as ports, energy and technology.

“China and the EU are both strong supporters of free trade and we hope that with the current international trend, both sides can jointly oppose trade and investment protectionism and actively promote facilitation and liberalization of global investment,” Gao said.