(Source: People's Daily Online-International Channel 2025-02-25)
On February 10, the State Council executive meeting reviewed and approved the “2025 Action Plan to Stabilize Foreign Investment” (hereinafter referred to as the “Action Plan”). On February 20, the State Council Information Office held a regular policy briefing to introduce the relevant situation. Relevant experts interviewed by reporters from People's Daily said that the "Action Plan" releases a positive signal for further opening up and uses practical actions to boost the confidence of enterprises from various countries to invest in China and share development opportunities.
Stabilizing foreign investment in action
Attracting and utilizing foreign investment has always been an important part of my country's basic national policy of opening up. In 2024, 59,080 new foreign-invested enterprises will be established across the country, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%.
Affected by factors such as weak global investment, geopolitics, and changes in the development of domestic related industries, in January 2025, my country's actual utilization of foreign capital was 97.59 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 13.4%, and the decline was narrower than last year. The updated "World Economic Outlook" released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in January 2025 predicts that global economic growth in 2025 is expected to be 3.3%, lower than the historical average of 3.7% from 2000 to 2019.
Xu Deshun, a researcher at the Institute of International w88 and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the current global economic situation is facing some challenges, mainly geopolitical tensions and global w88 frictions are still at a high level, as well as the policy changes of newly elected governments in some countries have made the market uneasy, affecting the stability of global w88 networks, investment patterns, production and supply chains, and economic growth.
On the basis of existing policies such as the "24 Foreign Investment Articles", the "Action Plan" further proposes 20 policy measures from four aspects: orderly expanding independent opening up, improving the level of investment promotion, enhancing the effectiveness of open platforms, and increasing service guarantees.
Tu Xinquan, Dean of the China WTO Research Institute at the w88 casinosaid that the introduction of the "Action Plan" reflects the country's emphasis on stabilizing foreign investment and encourages foreign companies to continue investing in China.
Xu Deshun believes that China has extremely large-scale market demand, actively promotes high-level institutional opening to the outside world, continues to optimize the business environment, Chinese-style modernization provides certainty to the world, and there are still many favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment.
Currently, a new round of scientific and technological revolution and industrial transformation are accelerating. China's investment structure is continuously optimized, and the import and export of foreign-invested enterprises are moving towards high-end, intelligent, and green directions.
China actively attracts foreign investment and makes full use of global innovation resources and innovation results to develop new productive forces. Ling Ji, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative for International w88 Negotiations, said at the State Council Information Office’s regular policy briefing held on the 20th that foreign-funded enterprises have become an important part of my country’s scientific and technological innovation system. The actual use of foreign investment in my country's manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing industries increased by 2.6 and 0.8 percentage points respectively compared with the end of 2024; the actual use of foreign investment in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and scientific and technological achievements transformation services increased by 68.4% and 23.9% respectively.
On February 20, the State Council Information Office held a regular briefing on State Council policies. Ling Ji, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative for International w88 Negotiations, and heads of the Department of Utilization of Foreign Capital and Overseas Investment of the National Development and Reform Commission, Central China and Industry Yao Jun, Director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Zhu Bing, Director of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, and Zhou Weijun, Director of the Credit Supervision and Management Department of the State Administration for Market Regulation introduced the situation of expanding high-level opening up to the outside world and doing a good job in stabilizing foreign investment in 2025, and answered reporters' questions. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Li Xin
Do well in “addition and subtraction”
The "Action Plan" focuses on the "subtraction" of the negative list and the "addition" of optimizing the business environment.
From the perspective of "subtraction", in September 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Special Management Measures for Foreign Investment Access", which comprehensively canceled restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector. The "Action Plan" clearly states that we will implement the comprehensive lifting of requirements for foreign investment access restrictions in the manufacturing sector, and take more practical and effective measures to stabilize stock, promote growth, and improve quality. The "Action Plan" also proposes to further reduce the negative list items for market access, expand pilot openings in telecommunications, medical care, education and other fields, and expand the scope of industries that encourage foreign investment.
From the "additional" aspect, the "Action Plan" proposes a series of measures such as continuing to expand rules, regulations, management, standards and other institutional openings in the free w88 pilot zone, and improving the level of export-oriented economic development in national economic and technological development zones. Huazhong, head of the Department of Utilization of Foreign Capital and Overseas Investment of the National Development and Reform Commission, said that the 2025 version of the "Encouraging Foreign Investment Industry Catalog" will be released as soon as possible according to procedures. The new catalog will focus on adding entries in fields such as advanced manufacturing, modern service industries, high-tech, energy conservation and environmental protection, and will also encourage more foreign investment to invest in the central and western regions and northeastern regions. In terms of brand building, the Ministry of Commerce will organize the “Invest in China” event with high quality.
Xu Deshun said that the investment opening covered by the "Action Plan" is broad and deep, and the action measures are comprehensive, pragmatic, and clearly guided. It provides policy support for creating a legal, international, and convenient business environment, and demonstrates China's determination to continue to promote institutional opening-up.
Form a "combination punch"
With the continuous implementation of a number of policies to stabilize foreign investment, the trend of foreign investment in China has been improving recently and confidence has improved. Many large foreign-funded projects such as Tesla's Shanghai Energy Storage Gigafactory have made new progress in China. A series of survey data show the willingness of multinational companies to continue investing in China and deepen their cultivation in China.
The "2025 China Business Environment Survey Report" released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that nearly 70% of the companies surveyed in the consumer industry expect to increase investment in China in 2025; the business confidence survey report released by the British Chamber of Commerce in China shows that 76% of the companies surveyed said they will maintain the current investment level or increase investment; the report of the German Chamber of Commerce in China shows that more than half of the companies plan to increase investment in the next two years.
Tesla Shanghai Energy Storage Gigafactory taken on February 8 (drone photo). Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe
The "Action Plan" clearly requires that various initiatives and policies will be implemented and effective before the end of 2025. Zhu Bing, director of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in conjunction with the release of the Action Plan, various departments will promote the issuance of a number of supporting policy documents in the next step to form a "1+N" policy "combination" to stabilize foreign investment.
Tu Xinquanbelieves that the next step in stabilizing foreign investment should continue to increase policy support, focus on key enterprises and key projects, and actively coordinate to solve the blocking points and difficulties for enterprises from various countries to invest in China.
Xu Deshun said that the "Action Plan" will promote China to further optimize the business environment, effectively connect domestic and foreign markets, and form a high-level, legalized investment opening system. At the same time, China will also contribute to creating a more favorable global investment environment.
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