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State Council's Notice on Further Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment

Opinions on increasing efforts to attract foreign investment

Guofa [2023] No. 11

The people's governments of all provinces, autonomous regions, and municipalities directly under the Central Government, all ministries and commissions of the State Council, and all agencies directly under the State Council:

Actively attracting and utilizing foreign investment is an important part of promoting high-level opening up and building a new open economic system. In order to further optimize the foreign investment environment, improve the level of investment promotion work, and increase efforts to attract foreign investment, the following opinions are hereby put forward.

1. Overall requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, we will fully implement the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, adhere to the general tone of the work of seeking progress while maintaining stability, fully, accurately and comprehensively implement new development concepts, build a new development pattern, and promote high-quality development , better coordinate the domestic and international situations, create a market-oriented, legalized, and international first-class business environment, give full play to my country's super-large market advantages, attract and utilize foreign investment more vigorously and more effectively, and promote high-level opening up to the outside world , and contribute to the comprehensive construction of a modern socialist country.

2. Improving the quality of utilizing foreign capital

(1) Increase efforts to introduce foreign investment in key areas. Support foreign investment in setting up R&D centers in China, jointly carry out technology R&D and industrial applications with domestic enterprises, and encourage foreign-invested enterprises and the R&D centers they establish to undertake major scientific research projects. On the premise of complying with relevant laws and regulations, accelerate the implementation and production of foreign-invested projects in the field of biomedicine, encourage foreign-invested enterprises to carry out clinical trials of overseas marketed cell and gene therapy drugs in accordance with the law, and optimize the transfer of marketed overseas-produced drugs to domestically produced drugs. Application procedures for listing registration applications. Support foreign-invested enterprises in advanced manufacturing, modern services, digital economy and other fields to carry out vocational education and training with various vocational schools (including technical colleges) and vocational training institutions.

(2) Give full play to the leading and leading role of comprehensive pilot demonstrations for expanding the opening up of the service industry. In line with international high-standard economic and trade rules, we will increase the intensity of comprehensive pilot demonstrations for expanding opening-up in the service industry. Encourage the development of combined pledge financing of intellectual property, equity and related physical assets, and support the standardized exploration of intellectual property securitization. Orderly increase equity investment and venture capital investment share transfer pilot areas. Steadyly increase the domestic Internet virtual private network business (foreign equity shall not exceed 50%), information service business (only for application stores, excluding online publishing services), and Internet access service business (limited to providing Internet access services to users) and other value-added telecommunications services opening pilot areas.

(3) Expand channels for attracting foreign investment. Qualified foreign investors are encouraged to establish investment companies and regional headquarters. Enterprises invested and established by relevant investment companies can enjoy the treatment of foreign-invested enterprises in accordance with relevant national regulations. Deeply implement the domestic investment pilot program for qualified foreign limited partners (QFLP), establish and improve the QFLP foreign exchange management facilitation system, and support the direct use of raised overseas RMB to carry out domestic related investments.

(4) Support the gradient transfer of foreign-invested enterprises. Relying on various open platforms such as free trade pilot zones, national-level new zones, and national-level development zones, encourage the eastern region, the central and western regions, the northeastern regions, and border regions to explore and carry out industrial transfer cooperation in pairs through sharing mechanisms such as output value and benefits. Foreign-invested enterprises that undergo overall gradient transfer within China shall be supervised according to the customs credit rating obtained by the original region.

(5) Improve the mechanism for promoting the construction of foreign-invested projects. Improve the special team mechanism for major and key foreign investment projects, strengthen factor support, policy support and service guarantee, and promote early signing, early landing, early start of construction and early production of foreign investment projects. Introduce policies and measures to promote green power consumption and support foreign-invested enterprises to participate more in green certificate transactions and cross-provincial and cross-regional green power transactions.

3. Guarantee national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises

(6) Ensure that foreign-invested enterprises participate in government procurement activities in accordance with the law. Relevant policies and measures should be introduced as soon as possible to further clarify the specific standards for "production within China". Research and innovate cooperative procurement methods, and support foreign-invested enterprises to innovate and develop world-leading products in my country through first purchase orders and other measures. Promote the accelerated revision of the Government Procurement Law. Carry out special inspections to ensure the fair participation of business entities in government procurement activities, investigate and deal with illegal and illegal behaviors such as differential treatment of foreign-invested enterprises in accordance with the law, and report typical cases in a timely manner. If foreign-invested enterprises believe that their rights and interests have been harmed by government procurement activities, they may raise questions and complaints in accordance with regulations, and financial departments at all levels should accept them in accordance with the law and handle them fairly.

(7) Support foreign-invested enterprises to equally participate in the formulation of standards in accordance with the law. Promote the disclosure of information throughout the entire process of standard formulation and revision, and ensure that foreign-invested enterprises and domestic-funded enterprises can equally participate in standardization technical committees and standard formulation work in accordance with the law. Foreign-invested enterprises are encouraged to formulate corporate standards on their own or jointly with other enterprises to develop standardized services. Promote national-level service industry standardization pilot projects in comprehensive pilot demonstration areas for expanding opening up of the service industry.

(8) Ensure that foreign-invested enterprises enjoy equal access to support policies. Policies issued by various localities to support industrial development and expand domestic demand must not exclude or discriminate against foreign-invested enterprises and their products and services on the grounds of limited brands or foreign brands, unless otherwise clearly stipulated in laws and regulations or involving national security. Investment companies and their products and services enjoy policies that set additional conditions.

4. Continue to strengthen foreign investment protection

(9) Improve the protection mechanism for foreign investment rights and interests. Improve the working mechanism for responding to international investment disputes, consolidate the main responsibilities, strengthen dispute prevention, and properly handle international investment disputes. We must resolutely crack down on malicious speculation that infringes upon the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors through the publication and dissemination of false and infringing information on the Internet, and seriously investigate and deal with relevant responsible institutions and responsible persons in accordance with the law. Establish and improve the provincial-level complaint coordination mechanism for foreign-invested enterprises to promote the resolution of multi-departmental matters or policy and institutional issues.

(10) Strengthen administrative protection of intellectual property rights. Improve the administrative adjudication system for patent infringement disputes and increase the enforcement of administrative adjudication. Support various regions to rely on the exhibition intellectual property workstation to accept applications for intellectual property rights such as copyrights, patents, and trademarks of exhibiting products, and provide effective measures to prevent infringement. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the procurement of drugs and medical consumables. Enterprises participating in procurement activities must independently promise that there will be no violations of patent laws and other laws and regulations. For products involved in intellectual property disputes, relevant departments must strengthen communication and consultation, and carry out procurement activities in accordance with laws and regulations; for products that are determined to be patent infringements by administrative rulings of the intellectual property department or effective judgments of the People's Court, timely measures will be taken to refuse to purchase or cancel the winning bid. Qualifications and other measures.

(11) Strengthen administrative enforcement of intellectual property rights. We will resolutely crack down on infringements of intellectual property rights by foreign-invested enterprises, and carry out special law enforcement actions against cross-regional and chain-based infringements. Improve the rapid collaborative protection mechanism for intellectual property rights, speed up the processing of cases with clear facts and conclusive evidence in accordance with the law, establish and improve an integrated online and offline law enforcement mechanism, and appropriately simplify procedural requirements.

(12) Standardize the formulation of foreign-related economic and trade policies and regulations. When formulating various foreign-related economic and trade policies and measures, we should focus on enhancing transparency and predictability, listen to the opinions of foreign-invested enterprises in accordance with the law, and set up a reasonable transition period for new policies and measures.

5. Improve the level of investment and operation facilitation

(13) Optimize the stay and residence policy for foreign employees of foreign-invested enterprises. Continue to optimize entry and exit policies and measures to provide entry, exit, stay and residence convenience for foreign executives and technical personnel of foreign-invested enterprises and their families. Guide China's embassies and consulates in key investment-attracting countries or regions to continue to facilitate visa applications for multinational company executives, and timely publicize China's entry policies through overseas business institutions. Provide convenience for foreign senior management and technical talents hired and recommended by qualified foreign-invested enterprises to apply for permanent residence. Improve the convenience of using permanent residence ID cards for foreigners in public transportation, financial services, medical security, Internet payment and other scenarios.

(14) Explore a facilitated cross-border data flow security management mechanism. Implement the requirements of the Cybersecurity Law, Data Security Law, and Personal Information Protection Law, establish green channels for qualified foreign-invested enterprises, efficiently carry out cross-border security assessments of important data and personal information, and promote the safe, orderly and free flow of data. Support Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area and other places in the process of implementing systems such as data export security assessment, personal information protection certification, personal information export standard contract filing and other systems to pilot and explore the formation of a free-flowing general data list and build services Platform to provide cross-border data flow compliance services.

(15) Coordinate and optimize law enforcement inspections of foreign-invested enterprises. Coordinate and promote the "double randomization, one disclosure" supervision and credit risk classification management, and further reduce the proportion and frequency of random inspections for foreign-invested enterprises with low credit risks. Support qualified regions to coordinate enterprise-related law enforcement inspection matters such as production safety, environmental protection, product quality, etc., so as to achieve "one door, multiple inspections".

(16) Improve service guarantees for foreign-invested enterprises. Establish and improve the roundtable system for foreign-invested enterprises. Special teams for major and key foreign-invested projects at all levels have established and improved linkage and coordination mechanisms to promptly coordinate and resolve difficulties and problems encountered during project signing, construction, and commissioning. We will do a good job in issuing certificates of origin for free trade agreements and provide convenience for foreign-invested enterprises to enjoy tariff reduction and exemption policies.

6. Increase fiscal and taxation support

(17) Strengthen the guarantee of foreign investment promotion funds. Through the central government's special funds for foreign economic and trade development, we will increase support for landmark foreign-invested projects and promote the implementation of projects as soon as possible. Improve the use of foreign investment promotion funds by local governments at all levels and increase investment attraction services in key industrial chains. Support various regions in providing support to investment projects of key multinational companies within the scope of legal authority.

(18) Encourage foreign-invested enterprises to reinvest within the country. Implement the policy of temporarily not imposing withholding income tax on reinvestment of profits made by foreign investors within the country, increase publicity and guidance, and guide local commerce, taxation and other departments at all levels to refine the scope of policy application, application materials, and handling procedures, and do a good job in specific implementation.

(19) Implement relevant preferential tax policies for foreign-invested enterprises. Counseling helps foreign individuals enjoy tax-free preferential policies for housing subsidies, language training fees, children’s education fees and other subsidies in accordance with relevant national regulations. Guide and help foreign-funded R&D centers to enjoy import tax policies that support scientific and technological innovation and value-added tax refund policies for purchasing domestic equipment in accordance with relevant national regulations.

(20) Support foreign-invested enterprises to invest in areas encouraged by the state. Support all regions to implement supporting incentive measures within the scope of legal authority for foreign-invested enterprises that comply with the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment. We will implement supporting policies and measures related to tax exemption for imported equipment for encouraged foreign investment projects.

7. Improve foreign investment promotion methods

(21) Improve the working mechanism for attracting investment. Carry out a series of "Invest in China Year" activities, continue to build the "Invest in China" brand, establish and improve working mechanisms, and guide and serve local governments in promoting foreign investment. Encourage qualified regions to establish investment promotion cooperation mechanisms with relevant countries or regions and adopt various forms to build investment promotion platforms. Encourage all regions to explore the implementation of more effective and flexible employment mechanisms and salary systems for non-civil servant and non-public establishment positions in foreign investment promotion departments and teams, strengthen foreign investment promotion staffing through cross-regional, cross-level and cross-department transfers, and accelerate the establishment of Diversify the foreign investment promotion work system and promote the formation of a flexible and efficient foreign investment promotion coordination and linkage mechanism involving the government, investment attraction agencies, business associations, intermediaries, leading enterprises in the industrial chain, etc.

(22) Facilitate overseas investment promotion work. Support regional investment promotion groups to regularly go abroad to carry out activities such as attracting investment, participating in conferences and exhibitions, and invite foreign businessmen to come to China for investment negotiations. For major and key foreign investment projects, multiple round-trip business visas will be issued to foreign personnel related to the project based on work needs.

(23) Expand foreign investment promotion channels. Strengthen the contact between our embassy and consulates and key enterprises in the host countries or regions, and promote investment opportunities in China. Support all regions to strengthen communication with the Ministry of Commerce and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade’s foreign economic, trade and investment promotion agencies, better leverage the role of investment promotion agencies (representative offices) established in the region overseas, and strengthen contact and cooperation with overseas economic, trade and investment promotion agencies.

(24) Optimize foreign investment promotion evaluation. Establish and improve the evaluation system for the effectiveness of foreign investment promotion, focus on the actual contribution of investment to economic and social development, prevent simply using statistical data on the scale of investment and actual amount of funds as the basis for assessment and reward and punishment of relevant enterprises and personnel, and effectively prevent "water injection" of foreign investment promotion Counterfeiting and vicious competition.

8. Strengthen organization and implementation

All regions, departments and relevant units must resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, improve their political stance, effectively do a good job in further optimizing the foreign investment environment, increase efforts to attract foreign investment, and make every effort to achieve the goal of using foreign investment to promote stability and improve quality. Encourage all regions to introduce supporting measures based on local conditions to enhance policy synergy. The Ministry of Commerce should work with relevant departments and units to strengthen guidance and coordination, do a good job in policy publicity, implement policy measures in a timely manner, create a more optimized investment environment for foreign investors, and effectively boost foreign investment confidence.