China's State Council stresses optimizing foreign investment environment
Photo taken on June 12, 2023 shows the Heilongjiang-MNCs Economics, Trade and Investment Cooperation Conference, held in Harbin, northeast China's Heilongjiang Province, to attract investment from multinational corporations into the province. [Photo by Sun Hanlun/China News Service]
China's State Council has recently issued a statement outlining its guidelines regarding further optimizing the foreign investment environment and intensifying efforts to attract foreign investments.
The guidelines urged to improve the overall balance between domestic and international situations and foster a world-class business environment that is market-oriented, law-based and internationalized.
They also called for giving full play to the strengths of China's enormous market, making more efforts in attracting and utilizing foreign investment, and doing it more effectively to make contributions to promoting high-standard opening-up and building a modern socialist country in all respects.
Under the guidelines, 24 specific measures in six aspects have been put forward, according to the State Council.
These aspects include improving the quality of foreign capital utilization, guaranteeing the national treatment of foreign-invested enterprises, strengthening the protection of foreign investment, improving the facilitation of investment and operation, increasing fiscal and tax support, and improving ways to promote foreign investment.
The statement also said that all regions are encouraged to adopt supporting measures in light of local conditions to enhance policy synergy.
The Ministry of Commerce should strengthen guidance and coordination with relevant departments on policy promotion, implement the policies and measures timeously, create a more optimized investment environment for foreign investors, and effectively boost foreign investment confidence.
Chinese economy maintains steady recovery, quality growth in July
Employees work on a production line at an electronics factory in Fuzhou City, southeast China's Fujian Province, July 26, 2023. [Photo by Zhang Bin/China News Service]
China sustained its economic recovery momentum last month and made solid progress in high-quality development despite lingering downward pressures on the global economy.
Retail sales of consumer goods, which indicate the consumption strength, registered a stable 7.3% increase from a year ago in the first seven months, and the fixed-asset investment went up 3.4%, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said on August 15, 2023.
The service sector remained vibrant as its production index gained 5.7% year on year in July, and the industrial output climbed 3.7%. The surveyed urban unemployment rate was 5.3%, lower than 5.4% a year earlier.
The Chinese economy continued the upward trend, with increases in both production and demand, stable employment and prices, and steady industrial upgrades, NBS spokesperson Fu Linghui told a press conference on August 15.
Consumption came as one of the bright spots last month. Services consumption logged a stellar 20.3% expansion in the January–July period, with robust summer vacation tourism. In July, the box office revenue surged 111% from the previous month, and new energy vehicle (NEV) sales jumped over 30% year on year.
Industrial upgrades picked up pace and the innovation momentum has gathered steam. High-tech investment gained 11.5% year on year in the first seven months, and the funds for scientific research and technologies went up 23.1%. The production of NEVs and solar batteries rose 24.9% and 65.1% in July, respectively.
Speaking at the press conference, the NBS spokesperson dismissed concerns over price changes in China. "There is no deflation for the Chinese economy."
Fu pointed out that consumer price growth will gradually return to a reasonable level and the price decline at the factory gate will further narrow, propelled by the positive trajectory of the broader economy.
Although economic indicators present a stable outlook, Fu emphasized the need for further efforts to reinforce the foundation of China's economic recovery amid a complex global environment and insufficient domestic demand.
Given challenges at home and abroad, China has rolled out an array of pro-growth measures in the past months.
A policy guideline was issued in July to address key concerns of private businesses, including fair competition and financing support. Consumer spending has been encouraged on a wide range of goods and services, including NEVs, home appliances, electronics, catering and tourism.
In the latest effort to bolster the economic recovery, the central bank on August 15 cut the interest rates of the medium-term lending facility and reverse repos. Analysts believe that the move will help shore up credit demand and boost consumption and investment growth.
Looking ahead, Fu expressed optimism over China's economic outlook for the rest of the year as the external environment will likely improve and the country's effective policies, such as measures to expedite infrastructure construction, support the private economy and enhance the structure of foreign trade, will boost the internal driving forces.
"Despite pressures and challenges, we have many favorable conditions for the sustained economic recovery and high-quality development," Fu said. "The economy will maintain stable performance in the second half with better development quality."