Foreign investment stabilization plan shows China's commitment to opening-up: Experts

China has pledged to expand the catalog of industries where foreign investment is encouraged, ramp up support for reinvestment by foreign-invested enterprises, and facilitate their financing, as part of a list of 20 measures aimed at stabilizing foreign investment. Experts believe this newly released 2025 action plan underscores the country's commitment to the international market and its dedication to high-level opening-up.

Pan Yuanyuan, deputy director of the International Investment Department at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, emphasized the crucial role that foreign investment has played in China's economic growth. She noted that since 2017, the global economic landscape has seen a significant slowdown in foreign direct investment, with a notable decline in global capital inflows. Despite this global trend, Pan highlighted that China remains committed to expanding opening-up, demonstrating both confidence in the international market and its economic strength.

The plan proposes more practical measures to stabilize the stock of foreign investment and expand new inflows, said Zhao Fujun, director of the Comprehensive Research Office at the Department of External Economic Research at the State Council's Development Research Center. Zhao believes the implementation of this action plan will play a crucial role in stabilizing foreign investment, boosting investor confidence in China and contributing to the country's high-quality development.

The action plan also encourages the engagement of foreign capital in equity investments in China, and calls for optimization of rules and procedures for foreign investors to conduct mergers and acquisitions.

Zhang Wei, Vice President of the Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation at the Ministry of Commerce, highlighted that this move will attract more foreign companies to deepen their investments in China through acquisitions, promoting higher-level international cooperation between Chinese firms and foreign enterprises.

In addition, the action plan aims to provide better service guarantees for foreign investment, facilitate the movement of personnel, and ensure more equitable treatment.

These measures are designed to foster a better development environment for foreign-invested enterprises in China, enabling them to share the dividends of China's economic growth, says Zhang.

By the end of 2024, close to 1.24 million foreign invested enterprises had been established in China, with an accumulative actual use of foreign investment amounting to 20.6 trillion yuan, contributing nearly 7 percent of employment and one-seventh of tax revenues for the country.