China to further ease foreign investment restrictions -- China has intensified efforts to implement policies designed to ease foreign investment restrictions and improve the business environment, Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily reported on December 6. Authorities have started to clear up restrictive regulations on foreign investment that go beyond the official negative list, the newspaper reported. Gao Feng, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), said the ministry will work with other departments to go through relevant regulations in various sectors and finish their revision or abolition by the end of 2019. By the end of March 2019, China will lift all barriers to foreign investments not included on the negative list and launch a special inspection to ensure foreign investors are treated fairly in the process of government procurement, financial support and qualification, MOC official Tang Wenhong told a press conference earlier in November.
Revised draft of Patent Law likely to be passed in 2019 -- The draft amendment to the Patent Law which has been submitted to the National People's Congress is expected to be passed next year, according to Yin Xintian, former director with the Law and Regulation Department under the National Intellectual Property Administration (CNIPA). The revisions increase intellectual property right (IPR) infringement costs by higher compensation and fines while lowering the difficulty of patentee right protection by adjusting burden of proof, Guo Jian, assistant researcher of the IP Development research center under the CNIPA, told Xinhua-run Economic Information Daily in an interview.
China encourages mechanized agriculture with new measures -- China has decided to boost mechanized farming and the upgrading of agricultural machinery, according to the State Council's executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on December 12. The meeting said that quickening the work as required by the country's rural vitalization strategy would provide essential support for China to achieve agricultural modernization, allow farmers to increase their income and further expand the domestic market. The work must be advanced to meet the needs of developing scale farming appropriately. During the process, farmers' wishes must be respected while the roles of the market are exploited. Grassroots creativity must be valued so that the work can proceed smoothly, it said. The meeting also listed several crops whose production and harvest could depend more on mechanized farming. They are rice, wheat, corn, potato, oilseed rape, cotton and sugarcane.
C China's Henan introduce measures to promote steady growth of foreign inv't -- Central China's Henan Province has recently unveiled a document to improve its business environment and promote steady growth of foreign investment in the province. According to the document, Henan will fully implement the pre-establishment national treatment and negative list management, accelerate the opening up of the automobile and aircraft industries, and cancel the restrictions on foreign share holding in the automobile manufacturing industry. Meanwhile, the province will further relax market access of foreign investors in the modern service industry, and relax or cancel the restrictions on investors' requirements for foreign-invested talent intermediaries.
China to accelerate key new material R&D and application, MIIT official -- The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) will work to push forward projects on key new material research and development (R&D) to accelerate new material application, according to an official with MIIT. China's new material industry has lagged behind equipment manufacturing development due to insufficient research, corporate funding as well as weak production-application and factor linkage, according to Pan Aihua, deputy director with the raw material department under the MIIT, reported Shanghai Securities News.
China to improve charging infrastructure for NEVs -- China's top economic planner released an action plan on December 10 to improve charging infrastructure for new energy vehicles (NEVs). The country aims to substantially improve the technology and quality of charging facilities, speed up efforts to establish a better standard system and optimize the distribution of these facilities within three years, according to the plan released by the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). China will also make the charging networks better connected with each other, upgrade the charging services and create a better environment for the development of the charging infrastructure.
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