China to further promote foreign investment in 2019

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China will continue its efforts to promote foreign investment in the country in 2019 by further easing market access and improving business environment for foreign companies, former vice commerce minister Zhang Zhigang said on Tuesday.

Zhang made the remarks at China's first Foreign Business Summit held in Beijing from Tuesday to Wednesday. The event aims at promoting the steady growth of foreign investment in China and exploring a higher level of China's opening up.

According to Zhang, the Commerce Ministry will further widen market access by shortening the negative list, which restricts foreign investment in certain industries, in both its 12 pilot free trade zones and nationwide, and allow full foreign ownership in more sectors.

Meanwhile, it will encourage foreign investment in manufacturing, high-tech industries, and China's central and western regions, in a bid to optimize the foreign investment structure.

The ministry will also work to improve the business environment, push for a foreign investment law and improve governments' handling of complaints from foreign businesses.

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Against the backdrop that global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 41 percent and that of developed countries dropped by 61 percent in the first half in 2018, FDI to China has remained on the upswing in 2018, Zhang noted, citing data from a report of UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTA).

The report shows that China is the largest investment recipient in the world in the first half of 2018, bucking the trend of global FDI decline.

"That shows China remains to be a hot destination for foreign capital," said Yuan Gaoqiang, deputy director of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment.

Since 1978 when China started its reform and opening up policies, FDI to the country has witnessed an exponential growth from almost zero to 135 billion U.S. dollars in 2017, an average annual growth of over 16 percent.

Over the 40 years, China's accumulative use of FDI exceeded two trillion U.S. dollars, which has contributed 10 percent of urban jobs, 20 percent of fiscal revenue and almost half of China's foreign trade.

"Foreign investment has been the propeller and catalyst for China's rapid development, " said Liu Yingkui, a research fellow with the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.