On October 8, the State Council Information Office held a press conference to provide a briefing on the systematic implementation of a package of incremental policies aimed at robustly promoting economic growth, optimizing structural frameworks, and maintaining sustained development momentum. During the conference, a question was raised: How does China plan to boost the investment confidence of private entrepreneurs and attract more foreign investment? What new policies will be introduced to further improve the business environment?

Addressing the question of attracting more foreign investment, Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), announced at the press conference that measures across five areas will be implemented to achieve this goal. These measures include enhancing efforts to attract and stabilize foreign investment, further expanding independent openness, revising and expanding the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment, launching a new batch of major foreign investment projects, and implementing more open visa-free transit policies. These measures are designed to encourage foreign enterprises to deepen their presence in China and succeed in the Chinese market.

Regarding further improvements to the business environment, Zheng Bei, vice chairwoman of the NDRC, stated at the press conference that NDRC will maintain a problem-oriented approach and, in collaboration with relevant departments, will continue to focus on optimizing the business environment by emphasizing “three further enhancements”.

First, they plan to further enhance the legal framework concerning enterprises.

On the one hand, efforts will be accelerated to legislate the Private Economy Promotion Law, ensuring that the legal system enforces equal treatment for both state-owned and private enterprises. The revision of the Tendering and Bidding Law will be expedited, focusing on eliminating regional protectionism and promoting fair market competition among enterprises of all ownership types. Additionally, they will promote the revision of regulations to ensure timely payments to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), urging government agencies, public institutions, and large corporations to promptly settle their dues with SMEs. On the other hand, they will expedite the removal of laws, regulations, and policies that result in unequal treatment of enterprises, and eliminate institutional barriers that hinder fair competition among enterprises.

Secondly, they intend to further standardize the enforcement and regulatory actions concerning enterprises.

Efforts will be made to expedite the refinement of benchmarks for administrative discretion. Administrative enforcement will increasingly adopt a more tolerant and prudent regulatory approach, employing flexible enforcement methods to avoid or minimize disruptions to the normal production and business activities of enterprises. They also aim to standardize cross-regional administrative enforcement practices, establish and improve a cross-regional administrative enforcement assistance system, and prevent selective and profit-driven enforcement. Additionally, there will be a focus on strengthening the supervision of administrative law enforcement, firmly addressing any improper charges, fines, or arbitrary levies, and holding those responsible strictly accountable.

Third, they plan to further assist enterprises in overcoming practical challenges.

They will fully leverage the inter-ministerial joint conference system to promote the growth and development of the private economy, establish and effectively utilize a comprehensive service platform for the development of the private sector, strengthen regular communication and exchanges across national, provincial, municipal, and county levels, attentively listen to the opinions and suggestions of enterprises, and work to address their urgent and pressing issues.

Translated by Fujian Investment Promotion Center