BEIJING, May 28 (Xinhua) -- Recently, Hainan, Beijing, Shanghai, Zhejiang, Liaoning, Ningxia and Guangdong have vied to launch specific opening-up measures with focuses on further liberalization of finance industry, transformation and upgrading of industries and optimization of business environment.
Experts say China’s utilization of foreign capital has ascended from the stage of scale expansion to improving quality, upgrading structure and planning a new pattern of pilot zones with different characteristics and emphases, which will give full play to inbound investment.
-- Top priorities given to finance industry and optimizing business environment
One of the top priorities in the new round of opening-up is the service sector represented by finance industry, and Shanghai has been taking the lead in the area. According to the new arrangement, Shanghai will further open up its finance industry in areas including continuing opening up of banking industry, securities market, insurance industry and finance market, extending the functions and serviceable range of FT accounts, removing barriers to market access and entry for bank card clearing institutions and non-bank payment institutions.
In this round of opening-up, the optimization of business environment has also become the priority in many places, showing the concept of making inbound investment stay through better services. Dalian of Liaoning province addresses the common concern of foreign investors by giving concrete capital support and enhancing service environment; Shanghai promulgated opinions on further optimizing business environment for the development of finance industry by offering and putting in place supporting service for foreign financial institutions.
Bai Ming, an expert at Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, suggested that local governments tailor opening-up measures to local characteristics firstly by taking advantage of existing foundations and avoiding measures that are too ambitious to be realistic and secondly by proactively addressing the new challenges and questions that occur in the opening-up, including business environment and external pressure.
-- Foreign capital introduced to help upgrading of industries
Currently, China’s introduction of foreign capital has entered a new stage emphasizing quality and upgrading, corresponding to which, new measures released recently all highlighted the requirement for inbound foreign investment to serve industrial transformation and upgrading.
“Admittedly, China is under huge pressure when it comes to the introduction of foreign capital, but what really matters now is not the scale of foreign investment but the structure. For example, how many foreign funds are attracted in the high-end manufacturing?” said Bai Ming
“On one hand, the absorption of foreign capital is just a process. After being introduced, foreign capital should be able to develop and boost economic development. On the other hand, more attention shall be paid to what opportunities the foreign capital can bring to the transformation and upgrading of related industries, to whether these industries can have a share at the high end of the industrial chain, make up the weakness and participate in the structural reform of supply side”, he said.
In fact, the trend of industrial upgrading in China’s absorption of foreign capital is becoming more evident. A growing number of foreign-invested enterprises are planning and building high value-added businesses like services and research & development centers in China, in addition to the high-end manufacturing and high-technology, among many others. China’s absorption of foreign investment in service sector and high-tech industries has accelerated in recent years as the inbound capital in the service sector has exceeded 70 percent of all foreign investment in China.
-- Dividend of opening-up to come in batches
Just like local governments, the central government and ministries are also pressing ahead with a series of initiatives to improve business environment and open wider to outside world, which are conducive to the development of foreign investment.
The executive meeting of the State Council held on June 16 decided to further simplify the procedures for the establishment of foreign-funded enterprises. Starting from June 30, China will integrate the filing of foreign-funded business with industrial and commercial registration, featuring “processing a set of forms at one stop”, paperless, zero meeting and no charges, which will reduce the processing time by a large margin. The information of the foreign-funded enterprises will be shared real time among banks, customs, tax administrations, forex administration etc. for joint management.
China will proactively, steadily and orderly expand its market opening according to its own development needs, rhythm and timetable so that the people in China and from all over the world can enjoy the dividends brought by China's reform and opening-up, said Gao Feng, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce at a regular press conference recently.
Investors’ confidence in Chinese market will undoubtedly be enhanced with the recovery of the world economy and the sustained and stable development of China's economy, coupled with the dividend brought by the expansion of the country’s opening-up.
“Opening-up has a leading effect and will bring business opportunities to investors,” said Dong Yan, director of the International Trade Department of the World Institute of Economics and Politics under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
(Edited by Yang Qi, kateqiyiang@xinhua.org; source: Economic Information Daily)
A single purchase
