The index number:000014349/2024-00028Topic categories:Commerce, customs, tourism\foreign economic and trade cooperationIssuing authority:Office of the State CouncilDate of writing:February 28, 2024title:Notice of the General Office of the State Council on Issuing the “Action Plan for Solidly Promoting High-level Opening to the Outside World and Making Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment”Text number:State Council issued [2024] No. 9release date:March 19, 2024
The General Office of the State Council issued the “Action Plan for Solidly Promoting High-level Opening to the Outside World and Making Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment“
State Council issued [2024] No. 9
The people’s governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all agencies directly under the State Council:The “Action Plan for Solidly Promoting High-level Opening to the Outside World and Making Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment” has been approved by the State Council and is now issued to you. Please implement it conscientiously.Office of the State Council　　　　　 February 28, 2024　　　　　(This article is released to the public)

Action Plan for Solidly Promoting High-level Opening to the Outside World and Making Greater Efforts to Attract and Utilize Foreign Investment
Foreign investment is an important force in participating in Chinese-style modernization and promoting the common prosperity and development of the Chinese economy and the world economy. To solidly promote high-level opening up and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, we must adhere to the guidance of Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, completely, accurately and comprehensively implement the new development concept, better coordinate the domestic and international situations, and create a market We will create a first-class, legal and international business environment, give full play to my country’s large-scale market advantages, consolidate the confidence of foreign investors in developing China, and improve the quality and level of trade and investment cooperation. In order to implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, the following action plan is formulated.

1. Expand market access and improve the level of foreign investment liberalization
(1) Reasonably reduce the negative list for foreign investment access. We will improve the pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list management system for foreign investment, comprehensively remove restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, and continue to promote the opening up of telecommunications, medical and other fields.(2) Carry out pilot projects to relax foreign investment access in the field of scientific and technological innovation. Free trade pilot zones such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangdong are allowed to select a number of qualified foreign-invested enterprises to conduct expanded opening-up pilots in areas such as the development and application of genetic diagnosis and treatment technologies. Support the opening-up measures in areas such as information services (limited to app stores) to be better implemented and effective in the free trade pilot zone.(3) Expand the access of foreign financial institutions in the banking and insurance field. On the premise of ensuring safety, efficiency and stability, support qualified foreign-funded institutions in carrying out bank card clearing business in accordance with the law. Deepen the opening up of commercial pension insurance, health insurance and other industries, and support qualified overseas professional insurance institutions to invest in, establish or participate in insurance institutions in China.(4) Expand the business scope of foreign financial institutions participating in the domestic bond market. Optimize the relevant procedures for foreign financial institutions to participate in the domestic capital market and further facilitate foreign financial institutions to participate in the Chinese bond market. Support qualified foreign financial institutions to participate in domestic bond underwriting in accordance with regulations. Study and steadily promote more qualified foreign banks to participate in the treasury bond futures trading pilot.(5) In-depth implementation of pilot projects for domestic investment by qualified foreign limited partners. Expand the scope of the pilot program for qualified foreign limited partners, standardize the requirements for registered capital, shareholders and other aspects of enterprises and funds managed by qualified foreign limited partners, and broaden the scope of investments that funds can invest. Improve the management measures for private equity investment fund service business, encourage foreign investors to invest in the establishment of private equity funds and carry out various investment activities in accordance with the law.

2. Increase policy intensity to enhance the attractiveness of foreign investment
(6) Expand the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment and the list of foreign investment projects. The national catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment increases support for areas such as advanced manufacturing, high-tech, energy conservation and environmental protection, and the catalog of advantageous industries for foreign investment in the central and western regions increases support for areas such as basic manufacturing, applicable technology, and people’s livelihood consumption. Actively support foreign investment projects in the fields of integrated circuits, biomedicine, and high-end equipment to be included in the list of major and key foreign investment projects, and are allowed to enjoy corresponding support policies.(7) Implement tax support policies. If the projects invested by foreign-invested enterprises in China’s reinvested enterprises meet the conditions of the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment, they can enjoy the tariff exemption policy for imported self-use equipment in accordance with regulations. Implement preferential tax policies for foreign investors investing in China’s bond market and other financial markets.(8) Increase financial support. Financial institutions are encouraged to provide high-quality financial services and financing support to qualified foreign-invested projects in accordance with market-oriented principles. Support qualified foreign-invested enterprises to issue RMB bonds domestically for financing and use them for domestic investment projects. Promote the implementation of policies to facilitate foreign exchange management of cross-border trade and investment, and continue to improve the convenience of foreign exchange business for foreign-invested enterprises.(9) Strengthen energy utilization guarantee. Improve the regulation of the total amount and intensity of energy consumption, focus on controlling fossil energy consumption, implement policies such as not including raw material energy consumption and non-fossil energy consumption into the total amount and intensity control of energy consumption, and ensure the reasonable energy demand of foreign-invested projects without discrimination. Accelerate the promotion of green certificate transactions and cross-provincial green electricity transactions to better meet the green electricity needs of foreign-invested enterprises.(10) Support the central, western and northeastern regions in undertaking industrial transfers. Encourage the central, western and northeastern regions to leverage their local comparative advantages and formulate policies and measures based on local conditions to reduce the costs of land, energy, labor, logistics and other costs for manufacturing enterprises. Plan and integrate key development zones in the central, western and northeastern regions, pair with the eastern region to carry out foreign investment industry transfer cooperation, and establish and improve mechanisms and implementation details for project promotion, cadre exchanges, and revenue sharing.

3. Optimize the fair competition environment and provide good services to foreign-invested enterprises
(11) Clean up behaviors and policies that violate fair competition. Promptly handle discriminatory behaviors against foreign-invested enterprises in government procurement, bidding, qualification licensing, standard setting, and subsidy enjoyment reported by business entities, and notify the responsible entities and make rectifications within a time limit. Accelerate the formulation and introduction of standards for government procurement of domestic products, and treat products that meet the standards produced by domestic and foreign-funded enterprises equally in government procurement activities. Comprehensively clean up policies and measures that hinder unified markets and fair competition.(12) Improve the bidding system. Accelerate the revision of the Bidding and Bidding Law. Organize and carry out special governance of prominent issues in the field of tendering and bidding, focus on rectifying problems that a group of business entities have strongly complained about, and remove unreasonable restrictions that restrict enterprises of all types of ownership from participating in tendering and bidding on an equal basis. Formulate rules for fair competition review in the field of tendering and bidding, strengthen rigid constraints on fair competition review, and avoid issuing policy documents that exclude and restrict fair competition.(13) Fair participation in the formulation and revision of standards. Support foreign-invested enterprises to participate in standardization technical committees or relevant standardization organizations such as advanced manufacturing, engineering materials, and information communications under the same conditions, and participate equally in the formulation and revision of standards in accordance with the law. Disclose national standard information in a timely manner and improve the transparency and openness of standardization work.(14) Improve the scientific level of administrative law enforcement. Strictly implement the administrative law enforcement publicity system, strictly implement the list of administrative inspection items, resolutely avoid repeated inspections, promptly correct irregular administrative law enforcement behaviors, and gradually implement off-site supervision with remote supervision, early warning and prevention and control as the main features.(15) Continue to build the “Invest in China” brand. Relying on important exhibition platforms, we will carry out the “Invest in China” key investment promotion activities to comprehensively demonstrate my country’s high-quality business environment and investment opportunities to overseas investors. Establish and improve working mechanisms, give full play to the role of business institutions of embassies and consulates abroad, support local governments to combine “going out” and “inviting in”, and carry out investment promotion work on a regular basis. Organize international industrial investment cooperation docking activities to promote more project negotiations and signings.(16) Strengthen services for foreign-invested enterprises. Make good use of platforms such as the foreign-invested enterprise roundtable to deepen regular exchanges with foreign-invested enterprises, foreign chambers of commerce and international organizations, promptly respond to the concerns of all parties, and provide targeted service guarantees. Improve the cross-departmental coordination working mechanism for complaints from foreign-invested enterprises at all levels, improve the direct contact system for foreign-invested enterprises, smooth communication channels, and promptly understand and promote the resolution of problems and reasonable demands reported by foreign-invested enterprises. Implement the foreign investment information reporting system and continue to promote departmental data sharing. Information that can be obtained through departmental information sharing shall not be required to be submitted repeatedly by foreign-invested enterprises.

4. Smooth the flow of innovation elements and promote innovation cooperation between domestic and foreign-funded enterprises
(17) Support data flow between foreign-invested enterprises and headquarters. Standardize cross-border data security management, organize and carry out data export security assessments, standardize the filing of standard contracts for the export of personal information, and other related work, and promote the safe and orderly flow of cross-border data such as research and development, production, and sales of foreign-invested enterprises. Develop cross-border data transfer standards for the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, rely on major cooperation platforms such as the Hengqin Guangdong-Macao Deep Cooperation Zone and the Qianhai Shenzhen-Hong Kong Modern Service Industry Cooperation Zone to establish a cross-border data flow mechanism for Hong Kong and Macao enterprises and explore the establishment of cross-border data flow The “white list” system steadily promotes the convenient flow of data within the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.(18) Facilitate the exchange of international business personnel. Provide convenience for foreign businessmen to apply for visas to China. For managers and technical personnel of foreign-invested enterprises and their accompanying spouses and minor children, the validity period of visa entry is relaxed to 2 years. Promote the accelerated recovery of the number of international flights in key aviation hubs such as Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou.(19) Optimize the management of foreigners’ work and residence permits in China. Optimize the application process for foreigners’ work permits and work-type residence permits in China, and adopt the method of “one-stop acceptance and parallel approval” to form a faster and more efficient approval mechanism. Strengthen departmental coordination to provide convenience for introduced foreign talents to work, stay and permanently reside in China.(20) Support cooperation and innovation between domestic and foreign institutions. Deeply implement the international science and technology cooperation plan under the new situation, and support foreign-invested enterprises, foreign-funded R&D institutions, and multinational companies established in China to equally participate in national key R&D plans, major national science and technology projects, and other national science and technology plans.

5. Improve domestic regulations and better align with international high-standard economic and trade rules
(21) Strengthen intellectual property protection. Align with international high-standard intellectual property rules, improve intellectual property protection regulations, accelerate the construction of a national intellectual property protection information platform, strengthen the construction of the trade secret protection system, and thoroughly implement the work plan for administrative protection of intellectual property rights. Focus on key areas and key links to increase the protection of intellectual property rights for foreign-invested enterprises. Strengthen the investigation and handling of cases of intellectual property infringement, and resolutely crack down on and punish violations of intellectual property rights of foreign-invested enterprises.(22) Improve rules for cross-border data flow. Scientifically define the scope of important data. Comprehensively and deeply participate in the e-commerce negotiations of the World Trade Organization and promote the acceleration of the establishment of global digital trade rules. Explore pilot projects for cross-border data flow with members of the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, accelerate the establishment of cross-border data flow cooperation mechanisms with major economic and trade partner countries and regions, and promote the construction of a multi-level global digital partnership network.(23) Actively promote the negotiation and implementation of high-standard economic and trade agreements. Actively promote joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, proactively promote reforms in relevant domestic fields by comparing relevant rules, regulations, management, and standards, and promote the incorporation of some high-standard economic and trade rules between the mainland, Hong Kong, and Macao Arrangements for establishing closer economic and trade relations. Promote the negotiation and signing of free trade agreements with more countries and regions, and expand the global network of high-standard free trade zones.(24) Increase the pilot efforts to align with international high-standard economic and trade rules. Give full play to the leading role of the national comprehensive demonstration zone for the expansion of opening-up in the service industry, accurately meet the needs of industrial development, take the lead in building a service industry opening system that is connected with international high-standard economic and trade rules, and timely connect it with the comprehensive pilot areas for the expansion of the opening-up of the service industry. Support the conditional free trade pilot zone and Hainan Free Trade Port to be based on national conditions, align with international high-standard economic and trade rules, and take the lead in exploring and implementing the results of the World Trade Organization negotiations on domestic regulations on service trade, investment facilitation, digital trade and other fields.All regions and departments must thoroughly implement the deployment requirements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on expanding high-level opening up to the outside world, take the initiative and pay close attention to implementation, and effectively enhance the sense of gain for foreign-invested enterprises. All regions should make greater efforts to create an environment and improve services, take the practical issues that foreign-invested enterprises are concerned about as a breakthrough point, be good at using innovative thinking to solve contradictory problems, and consolidate the confidence of foreign investment in the development of China. All departments must promptly refine and implement various tasks, formulate timetables and roadmaps, and promote the implementation of policy measures to achieve results. The National Development and Reform Commission should work with relevant departments to strengthen guidance and coordination, track and evaluate the implementation effects of various policies, sum up experience in a timely manner, and replicate and promote it. Major matters shall be promptly reported to the Party Central Committee and the State Council for instructions.