China will continue widening its market to foreign investors in line with national plans of further opening-up and economic reform, said the Ministry of Commerce on Monday (MOFCOM). 

The ministry reviewed 2019 and the preliminary plans for 2020 in a press conference on Monday. Topics included consumption, high-quality development of trade, and foreign investment.

The government has committed to stabilizing employment, finance, foreign trade, foreign investment, investment and expectations, collectively known as the "six stabilities," since 2018. The target was reaffirmed at the annual Central Economic Work Conference in December. 

Foreign investment

Investment cooperation from the "Belt and Road" countries is continuing. Han Yong, the deputy director of the Cooperation Department at MOFCOM, said: Investment in countries along the route amounted to 12.8 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 0.5 percent in total foreign investment, and the cumulative investment has exceeded 100 billion U.S. dollars."

To attract foreign investment, the government will keep improving market accessibility to foreign investors in 2020, for example, by shortening the negative list. 

Other key methods include further optimizing the business environment and improving mechanisms to protect foreign investment.

The Foreign Investment Law, effective on January 1, 2020, signifies a substantial move of China's financial reform towards a more open environment, aiming to optimize the business environment and better protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors in the country.

"It promotes the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors, especially the protection of intellectual property rights, and solves the pain points that have long plagued foreign-funded enterprises with regulations. It will greatly enhance companies' sense of gains," said Zong Changqing, the director of the Foreign Investment Department at MOFCOM.

Read more: China issues judicial interpretation on Foreign Investment Law

China's improving business environment has reflected in its increasing attractiveness to foreign direct investment (FDI). In the first 11 months of this year, the number of foreign-funded projects with investment of at least 100 million U.S. dollars reached 722, up 15.5 percent year-on-year, Commerce Minister Zhong Shan said Sunday.

Read more: China sees steady inflow of FDI

Free trade

Regarding free trade, in the coming year, the government will further enhance foreign investment accessibility by shortening the negative list of the Pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZ), and explore the feasibility of establishing a negative list management system of cross-border service trade in the FTZs, according to the ministry.

Experts say investment protection will remain paramount in 2020, with the goal of establishing a sound foreign investment service system to safeguard foreign companies' legitimate interests.

Customs statistics show China's imports from and exports to the United States down nine percent in the first half of 2019, at 1.75 trillion yuan, that's just over 250 billion U.S. dollars.

Han Yong also mentioned that trade disputes pose risks. Some countries have tightened security reviews on foreign investment. It has affected all investing countries, including China, causing concerns for investors. "We believe these types of security reviews are based on concerns over national sovereignty. However, that should not be an excuse to promote protectionism," said Han.

In addition, the ministry will coordinate with relevant parties to reform areas including trade convenience and talents flow in the FTZs. 

Developing Hainan Free Trade Zone is also emphasized in next year's work, with particular focuses on free investment and free trade.

During January to October 2019, about 217,000 new enterprises established in the 12 FTZs set up previously, among which 5,123 were foreign invested. The actual foreign investment utilized was 108.39 billion U.S. dollars, and the total value of imports and exports was 3.2 trillion U.S. dollars. Using less than 0.4 percent of the country's land area, these FTZs respectively contributed 14.4 percent and 12.5 percent to the overall foreign investment and import and export.

In August this year, Shanghai officially launched the new FTZ Lingang Special Area, in Shanghai to facilitate overseas investment and capital flows.

Later on, the State Council released a master plan for six new pilot free trade zones which will be located in the six provincial regions, namely Shandong, Jiangsu, Hebei, Yunnan and Heilongjiang, and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, bringing the total number of the country's pilot FTZs to 18.

The FTZs serve as pioneers of the country's reform and opening-up as they test new styles of foreign investment management, trade facilitation, and transformation of government functions to better integrate the economy with international practices.

Each pilot FTZ will carry out distinctive and differentiated tasks for piloting reform, aiming at addressing systemic issues centered on investment, trade and finance, and deepening trade and economic cooperation with neighboring countries and regions.

(CGTN's Ma Li also contributed to the story.)