The flagship newspaper of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has published an opinion piece in its finance section hailing further opening of China’s economy to the rest of the world.
“In recent years China has continually deepened reforms of its foreign investment regulatory system, and created a fair, transparent and predictable commercial environment,” said the opinion piece published by the People’s Daily at the end of October entitled “Fair, Highly Efficient, Open – China’s Commercial Environment Continues to Optimise” (“公平、高效、开放” 中国营商环境持续优化 ).
“On 1 January 2020 the ‘Foreign Investment Law’ (外商投资法) officially came into effect, setting the legal foundation for a new foreign investment regulatory system which achieves domestic and foreign unification and equal protections,” wrote Bi Lei (毕磊).
“Decentralised service reforms for foreign investment are continually deepening, changes in government roles are accelerating, work procedures are continually optimising, achieving upgrades in handling efficiency.
“The foreign investment services system is improving by the day, and methods for attracting businesses and drawing investment are continually improving and being innovated.”
Zhu Keli (朱克力), an economist with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said to the People’s Daily that “optimisation of the commercial environment is a major keystone of China’s participation in international cooperation and competition…especially under current conditions, optimisation of the commercial environment has become a key mission for effectively performing the ‘six stabilities’ and implementing the ‘six protects.'”
The People’s Daily cited a recent survey indicating that 99.1% of foreign businesses in China intend to continuing to invest and operate in the country, while 89% of European Union enterprises indicated that they were not considering withdrawal of their Chinese supply chains.
