Commerce Ministry encourages foreign investment

The Chinese Ministry of Commerce released three reports to encourage foreign investment and a Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment is expected soon, the 21st Century Business Herald reported on Wednesday.

The three released reports include China's Foreign Investment Statistics Bulletin 2022, China's Foreign Investment Guidelines (2022 edition) and China's Foreign Investment Report 2022.

The scale of China's actual use of foreign investment grew steadily in 2021 with the actual use of foreign capital for the year reaching 1.198 trillion yuan, up 15.8 percent year-on-year according to the China's Foreign Investment Statistics Bulletin 2022.

China's foreign direct investment inflows accounted for 11.4 percent of the global share in 2021, ranking second in the world according to the World Investment Report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

In the first half of this year, China's actual use of foreign capital reached 723.31 billion yuan ($112.35 billion), up 17.4 percent on a comparable basis, according to data from the ministry.

Important decisions on China's in-depth implementation of the digital economy development strategy and accelerating the construction of a unified national market have been added to the Guidelines on Foreign Investment in China (2022 edition).

In 2021, China's digital service export volume reached $194.84 billion, up 26.2 percent year-on-year; imports of digital services reached $164.84 billion, up 18.1 percent year-on-year.

With the growing importance of the digital economy, the formulation of rules and cooperation frameworks in the digital sector has become an important part of many bilateral and multilateral economic and trade negotiations.

China's accession to the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement will promote further opening up of digital trade, establish an integrated digital trade market with common rules and compatible standards and expand mutual cooperation in digital fields with other countries.

It will also bring enterprises more cooperative opportunities in digital industries and promote the development of the digital economy for all parties.

China's policies and measures to achieve carbon peaking and carbon neutrality have also been expanded and refined in the guidelines.

China improved its policies and institutional system for promoting foreign investment in terms of investment access, facilitation measures, investment promotion and investment protection last year, according to China's Foreign Investment Report 2022.

The ministry will do a good job in attracting investment, ensuring business security and maintaining business stability, and bring more multinational companies to invest in China and share the dividends, said Chen Chunjiang, director-general of the foreign investment administration department at the ministry.