Containers to be loaded on vessels for export at Qingdao Port in East China's Shandong Province  Photo: IC

China made major breakthroughs in foreign investors' access in 2019, the year in which the country witnessed the release of the largest number of new opening-up measures, and the strongest and deepest reforms, in recent years, said a senior trade official on Monday.

Though uncertainties are rising, the basic trend of China's stable economy and long-term improvement has not changed. China still has a competitive edge in attracting foreign investment, and the country remains an important investment destination for most multinational companies, Zong Changqing, director of the department for foreign investment under the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM), said at a press conference in Beijing on Monday.

New breakthroughs were made in foreign investment policies over the past year, Zong said, noting that the 2019 edition of the negative list of foreign investment access was revised and released. The national negative list was reduced to 40 items, allowing foreign investment to operate in more fields in the form of sole investment. The MOFCOM also abolished eight departmental regulations and 56 regulatory documents related to foreign investment over the past year, Zong said. 

In the first 11 months of the year, the actual use of foreign capital nationwide reached 845.94 billion yuan ($121.05 billion), a year-on-year increase of 6 percent. It is expected that the use of foreign capital for the whole year will increase by about 5 percent in yuan terms and about 2 percent in US dollar terms, the MOFCOM said.

Li Xingqian, head of the ministry's foreign trade department, told the press conference that China made steady improvement in foreign trade in 2019.

According to Li, from January to November 2019, the nation's total trade value was 28.5 trillion yuan, an increase of 2.4 percent year-on-year. It is expected that the scale of foreign trade for the whole year will be more than 30 trillion yuan, a new high.

In the year ahead, the ministry will work on a negative list in the cross-border services trade sector, and it will further expand services exports, Xian Guoyi, head of the MOFCOM's services trade department, told the press on Monday. 

Global Times