The State Council has recently distributed the Circular on Several Measures Concerning the Active and Effective Use of Foreign Investment to Boost High-quality Economic Growth (the "Circular").
The Circular rolls out measures in six respects. The first is extensively relaxing the market access to boost the freedom in investment. It is required that respective administrative measures (a negative list) for entry of foreign investment, applicable in national areas and in pilot free trade zones, shall be updated and announced by July 1, 2018. The second is deepening the reform of "streamlining administration, delegating power and strengthening regulation, and improving services" to make it more convenient to seek investment. It is proposed to further delegate the authority for examining and approving foreign investment. The third is stepping up efforts to facilitate investment and increase the quality and level of investment introduced into China. It is clearly stated that foreign investors are encouraged to make investment through mergers and acquisitions. The fourth is providing better safeguards for investment to create high-standard investment environment. It is stressed that efforts shall be made to strengthen protection of intellectual property rights and make improvements to the inter-ministerial joint conference regime for complaints made by foreign-invested enterprises. The fifth is optimizing the layout of regional opening-up to guide foreign investment to areas such as central and western regions. And the sixth is driving the innovation-oriented upgrading of national-level development zones and maximizing the significant platform role of the utilization of foreign investment.