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Invest Shanghai
China has rolled out a new round of market-opening measures, broadening foreign access to vocational training, higher education, financial derivatives and pharmaceutical sectors, as Beijing doubles down on its strategy to attract high-quality foreign investment amid a challenging global economic environment.
The measures are part of the action plan for stabilizing and improving foreign investment utilization, jointly issued on Monday by the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance.
China's foreign direct investment has shown "strong resilience" despite recent fluctuations, with the country continuing to rank first among developing nations as a destination for global capital, Vice-Minister of Commerce Ling Ji told a news conference on Monday.
With all foreign investment restrictions in manufacturing now eliminated, Ling noted that China is shifting its focus to address lingering "post-entry" operational challenges, while planning to further open its services sector to create a more favorable business environment for multinational corporations.
Building on previous pilot programs in value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, the new plan expands the scope of services opening to include vocational training institutions, vocational colleges, and high-level universities specializing in science, technology, engineering, agriculture and medicine.
In financial services, the plan allows more foreign institutions to use risk management tools including treasury bond futures, strengthening their ability to hedge against market volatility.
The plan also accelerates efforts to expand pilot zones for biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals. It pushes for regulations on segmented drug production to facilitate cross-border manufacturing of biologics and chemical drugs.
Wang Ya, who heads the commerce ministry's foreign investment management department, said that the services sector has become the primary driver of foreign direct investment in China, accounting for over 70 percent of the country's total actual utilized foreign capital.
"Going forward, we will continue to increase policy support to actively attract foreign enterprises to establish regional headquarters, R&D centers and other functional institutions in China, so as to help expand the scale and improve the quality of China's services sector," Wang added.
The action plan is the latest in a series of opening-up measures as China enters the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30). In addition to services and finance, it addresses foreign investor concerns over mergers and acquisitions, cross-border data flows and reinvestment of foreign earnings.
Buay Beng Tan, vice-president of operations for China at FedEx Corp, the United States-based express transportation service provider, said that "as global industrial and supply chains become increasingly interconnected, China offers greater certainty for global supply chain stability, sustainable transformation and multilateral cooperation."
FedEx, a four-time participant in the ongoing fourth China International Supply Chain Expo in Beijing, announced earlier this month that it has formed a partnership with State-owned China Southern Air Logistics Co to explore cooperation across key areas, including international flight and hub connectivity, network planning, fleet resources, ground operations and digitalization.
Michael Gierges, president of climate solutions for Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Africa at Carrier, a US-based intelligent climate and energy solutions provider, said China is no longer viewed simply as a regional market, but as a key driver of the group's global growth strategy.