China's top economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), has pledged to improve business environment for multinational companies in the next five years, with more access to trade and investment.
The NDRC said on Tuesday that China will improve government services, strengthen information sharing and make its policies more transparent to create a world-class business environment for multinational companies.
"We have substantially broadened market access for foreign investors. We've revised the negative list on market access for three consecutive years, and the list keeps shortening. We've also released a new catalog of industries in which we encourage foreign investment," said Yang Jie, director general of the Department of Laws and Regulations of the NDRC.
With the coronavirus epidemic under control in China, officials said the country has had the largest destination for foreign capital in the past year.
"In the first quarter of this year, the actual use of foreign investment in China reached 302.4 billion yuan, up by 39.9 percent year on year, and an increase of 24.8 percent compared with the same period in 2019," NDRC Deputy Head Ning Jizhe said.
He added that the figures show that the business environment for multinational and foreign companies operating in China is continuously improving, and China's attraction to foreign investment is growing.
Representatives from dozens of multinational companies, including Qualcomm, PWC and Nestle say that they look forward to seeing more opportunities. But they expressed concern about some areas, such as intellectual property protection and efficiency of policy implementation.
"Since the beginning of last year, over 25 Chinese companies have signed new patent license agreements with Qualcomm, which has helped them enhance their competitiveness and also set a good example on intellectual property cooperation for China and the U.S.," said Guo Tao, vice president of Qualcomm.
"However, China is still facing challenges in IP protection. For example, there are different standards on judgment and compensation for IP infringement," Guo added.
The top economic planner promised that China will not close its doors to the world, but instead open up its market even wider. Officials say the country will be even more closely connected with the global economy, offering various market opportunities to other countries.