The Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) Photo: VCG

With the contribution from the services sector that had seen a stable increase in terms of foreign investment, China became the world's largest recipient of foreign investment in 2020 despite the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, China's Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Friday.

In the past few years, China had made efforts in three areas, including having narrowed down the negative list to enhance further opening-up in the services sector, Zong Changqing, head of the MOFCOM's department of foreign investment, said on Friday at a press briefing regarding the opening-up of the services sector.

Looking forward, Zong said that the ministry will launch 203 pilot projects to further open the services sector in four cities and provinces including Tianjin, Shanghai, and South China's Hainan Province.

According to Zong, the new projects will involve 12 major fields in the services sector including technology, finance and education.

The country's negative list for market access was narrowed down to 33 terms in 2020 from 93 terms in 2015; and 30 of the deducted terms are related to the services sector, according to Zong.

The Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment has also been expanded in the past five years as the number of terms increased to 480 in 2020 from 349 in 2015, Zong said.

In addition, China has also promoted pilot projects to attract foreign investment in the services sector. Citing Beijing as an example, Zong said the Chinese capital city rolled out three rounds of pilot projects in the past five years, and has attracted 568.6 billion yuan （$86.26 billion） worth of foreign investment, accounting for 14.8 percent of the nation's total attracted foreign investment.

"During the 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-20),attracted foreign investment in the services sector has witnessed an average annual growth rate of 4.4 percent, which has helped China to become the largest recipient of foreign investment in the world in 2020," Zong said.

Global Times