More measures in pipeline to expand opening-up

In the action plan released on Feb 19 to stabilize foreign investment in 2025, China rolled out a series of measures to further expand opening-up.

The plan encouraged the pilot regions to explain and implement policies concerning foreign access to value-added telecommunications services, biotechnology and entirely foreign-owned hospitals, and carry out dedicated services for foreign-related projects to solve their problems in time.

In the future, the pilot opening-up in telecommunications services and medical care will be expanded in good time, according to the plan.

According to the plan, China will seize the initiative by opening its education and cultural sectors further, publish implementation plans and steadily push those plans to be implemented.

China will implement measures to remove all foreign investment restrictions in the manufacturing sector. For areas not included in the foreign investment negative list, the access management of foreign investors will be strictly consistent with that of their domestic peers.

In addition, the negative list will be further revised to reduce items and expand the market access to all types of business entities.

The pilot opening-up of the service sector will be optimized, the plan said, and the nation will support Beijing's national comprehensive demonstration zone for expanding service sector opening-up to play a leading role and accelerate pilot moves.

While expanding the pilot scope, new contents and tasks will be introduced, and the opening-up measures in key sectors will also be tried first in the pilot demonstration zones, the plan added.

To promote the orderly opening-up in the biomedical sector, eligible foreign enterprises will be supported to participate in the pilot production of biological products in stages, and the review of provincial-level pilot programs and quality supervision plans will be accelerated.

In the meantime, work will be done to improve opening-up policies in the pharmaceutical field, facilitate the market launch of innovative drugs, optimize bulk procurement of medicines, and further raise the expectations in medical device procurement.

Foreign equity investment is also welcomed, the plan said. To that end, efforts will be made to formulate and implement the guidance for strategic investment, enhance the publicity to listed companies, overseas funds and investment institutions, and guide more high-quality foreign capital to invest in China's listed companies in the long run.