China will remove all access restrictions on foreign investment in areas outside the negative list by the end of this year, as part of the country’s overall effort to further open up the economy and pursue high-quality development, Meng Wei, Spokeswoman for the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said. The revised negative list on market access of foreign investment and the catalog of encouraged foreign investment industries is to be released by the end of the month. “Our negative lists will only be shortened further,” Meng added. “By the end of this year, China will lift all barriers to foreign investment not included on the negative list, and China will encourage more foreign investment in more fields, especially for the central and western regions.” A negative list indicates areas where investment is prohibited, while all other areas are presumed to be open.

Li Gang, Director of the Academic Committee at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that “in the era of economic globalization, shutting our door to the outside world would not help China. We need to foster a better business environment and widen market access to attract more foreign investment, which will help fuel innovation, and improve industrial upgrading and high-quality economic development in China.”

China’s foreign direct investment (FDI) grew 6.8% year-on-year to CNY369.06 billion in the first five months of this year, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM). Manufacturing FDI in China reached CNY112.89 billion, up by 12.4% year-on-year. According to the World Investment Report 2019 published by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), China was ranked as the world’s second-largest FDI recipient after the United States, accounting for more than 10% of total global FDI. China ranked 46th out of 190 economies in the World Bank’s newly released ease of doing business rankings for 2018, compared with 78th place in 2017, the China Daily reports. There will be one list for pilot free trade zones and one for the rest of the country.