China further relaxes foreign investment restrictions, vows to promote services trade

BEIJING -- An executive meeting of the State Council, presided over by Premier Li Qiang on Monday, reviewed and approved four documents, discussed policy measures to support the high-quality development of innovative small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and approved five nuclear power projects.

Among the approved documents was the 2024 edition of a set of special administrative measures -- a negative list -- for foreign investment access.

According to the negative list, China will relax restrictions on foreign investment further by completely abolishing entry barriers in the manufacturing sector, while accelerating the opening up of sectors such as telecommunication, education and health care services.

Another document approved at the meeting was a set of guidelines on promoting the high-quality development of services trade through high-level opening up.

The meeting stressed that accelerating the development of services trade is essential to expanding high-level opening up and fostering new foreign trade drivers.

Efforts should be made to promote innovative development in key services trade areas, as well as the integration of services trade and goods trade, according to the meeting.

It also highlighted the importance of efforts to create new services trade growth drivers, and to support the international development of professional services such as finance, consultation, design and certification.

The meeting discussed measures with a focus on strengthening policy coordination in areas of taxation, finance, science and technology, industry and human resources, in order to foster innovative SMEs that use specialized, sophisticated technologies to produce novel or unique products.

Efforts must also be made to make those SMEs smarter, and more digitalized and eco-friendly in a bid to enhance their core competitiveness, according to the meeting.

Noting that safety is the lifeline of nuclear power development, the meeting stressed the need to strengthen safety regulations to ensure the utmost safety of nuclear power and promote the long-term healthy development of the industry.