A tourist boat sails on the Huangpu River next to the Bund in east China's Shanghai, Feb. 14, 2021. (Xinhua/Zhang Jiansong)
BEIJING, Dec.13 (Xinhua) -- Foreign institutions believe that China's opening-up will develop towards a higher-quality and higher-level direction, as the country has fulfilled its commitments and obligations since its WTO accession and enjoyed a rising economic position.
"The 20 years since WTO accession have witnessed the fastest development of China. We've seen changes that were unimaginable before. In terms of the financial market, the brands of a number of foreign financial institutions and multinational companies have gradually penetrated into the Chinese market, and foreign advanced technologies, ideas and talents have kept entering China, which would have been unthinkable 20 years ago," said Liu Jianzhong, a partner with global law firm Linklaters.
The China Securities Regulatory Commission announced on March 13 of last year that the cap on foreign ownership of securities companies would be removed since April 1, 2020, which was eight months earlier than the original plan and has become one of the representative policies for China to embrace foreign investment.
In spite of the changing international environment, China has kept speeding up the opening-up of its financial market, successively lifting restrictions on foreign ownership in futures companies, as well as in fund management companies and securities companies nationwide since last year.
Meanwhile, foreign institutions are also competing for a share in the Chinese market at a faster speed. In August this year, J.P. Morgan Chase International Financial Co., Limited was approved to take 100-percent ownership of its subsidiary J.P. Morgan Securities (China) Company Limited, making the latter the first wholly foreign-owned securities firm.
In October this year, the global investment banking, securities and investment management firm Goldman Sachs Group was also approved to wholly own Goldman Sachs Gaohua Securities, a joint venture affiliated to the Group.
Foreign financial institutions are actively expanding their presence in China. Data disclosed by the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission show that, as of the first half of this year, foreign banks have set up 41 foreign-incorporated banks, 115 branches and 139 representative offices in China, with business institutions and assets totaling 930 and 3.73 trillion yuan, respectively.
Besides, overseas insurance institutions have set up 66 foreign-funded insurance institutions, 85 representative offices and 17 professional insurance intermediaries in China, with total assets registering 1.94 trillion yuan.
To further facilitate foreign investment, China has released the foreign investment law, implemented the management system of pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list for foreign investment, and cut the items on the negative list for foreign investment from 48 in 2018 to 33 in 2020.
According to the 2021-edition China business climate report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, 61 percent of the foreign businesses surveyed regarded China as their top investment destination, and two-thirds of the surveyed businesses said they would further increase their investment in China.
(Edited by Tong Ting, Gu Shanshan with Xinhua Silk Road, gushanshan.1987@163.com)
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