China's Foreign Investment Law (FIL) has offered a more convenient environment for investment activities and better protection for foreign capitals' rights and interests since it was implemented more than one year ago, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Wang Wenbin said on Thursday. 

The FIL effectively guarantees the country's utilization of foreign capital amid the COVID-19 tailspin as foreign investment to China went up 4.5 percent year on year in 2020. China has become the world's largest recipient of foreign capital, Wang noted.

"China has never stopped its reform and opening up when facing the grave challenges caused by COVID-19, and its door to the outside world will only open wider," said the spokesperson.

Last year, the negative list for foreign investment access across the country was curtailed from 40 items in 2019 to the current 33. The negative list for foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zones dwindled from 37 to 30 items and the free trade port version was reduced to 27 items, according to Wang. Three new pilot free trade zones were established in Beijing, and the provinces of Hunan and Anhui.

The "Doing Business 2020 report", the latest in a series of annual reports by the World Bank, shows that China has been included among the top 10 fastest global reformers for two years in a row. The country has also seen a significant jump from the 78th position in the "Doing Business 2018 report" to the 31st place in this most recent report. The report analyzed 190 economies around the world.

"According to the 2020 Member Survey released by the U.S.-China Business Council, nearly 70 percent of surveyed U.S. companies are bullish on the five-year business outlook in China," Wang said. "Per the survey conducted by the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, over 60 percent of companies active in the European Union believe that China is still among their top three investment destinations."

At present, China is kicking building a new development pattern into high gear, which takes the domestic market as the mainstay and allows domestic and foreign markets to boost each other, said Wang.

"China's opening up will surely reach wider, go deeper and get more sophisticated. We will endeavor to offer an investment environment to foreign capitals that is more market-oriented, law-based, and up to international standards. China's market will be shared by everyone around the world," Wang added.