Graphics: GT

China's new law on foreign investment underpins the nation's efforts to further nurture an attractive and open business environment for foreign companies and is encouraging, said executives from foreign companies in China and domestic experts. 

Effective on Wednesday, the new law replaced the three primary laws regulating foreign-invested enterprises in China. It put foreign investors on equal footing with domestic investors in the Chinese market and gave them equal protection. 

Edmund Yang, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner in Beijing, said that among the major changes in the law, the mandate that foreign companies in China should not face discrimination is particularly encouraging. "Besides being able to pursue more business opportunities such as government projects, a more level platform will allow foreign-invested companies such as my firm to manage operations more effectively."  

The new law also has a focus on protecting the business rights of overseas companies in China, prohibiting forced technological transfer while enhancing intellectual property protection. 

Wei Jianguo, former Chinese vice commerce Minister, told the Global Times that the new Foreign Investment Law is aimed at "attracting investors" and "lifting restrictions," while the old version talked extensively about "regulating" and "limiting" investments. "It's not only a big gift to foreign investors for the new year. China will also get off to a flying start." 

The new law will deliver a clear signal to the world that China is embarking on the road of high-quality opening-up and aims to create an equal playing field for all companies operating in China, he said. 

China's opening-up stance and friendly attitude are attracting overseas investment capital. In the first 11 months of 2019, China used 845.9 billion yuan ($121.1 billion) of overseas capital, up by 6 percent on a yearly basis. 

"About $140 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) will stream into China in 2020, making the country the world's first in terms of FDI inflow volume," Wei said. 

Tao Lin, vice president of Tesla Inc, said on Monday that the improvement of China's business environment, such as faster government approval processes, helped the company to build a plant in China in a relatively short time. 

Yang nevertheless said that some foreign investors may still wait to observe how the new provisions will be exercised before committing themselves to do more business in China.

Graphics: GT

Newspaper headline: Overseas investors call new Foreign Investment Law encouraging