On December 28, 2020, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment (2020 Edition)". The 2020 edition of the catalog further adds entries to encourage foreign investment, encouraging foreign investment to invest in advanced manufacturing, modern service industries, and advantageous industries in the central and western regions. The revised catalog has a total of 1,235 entries, an increase of 127 entries over the 2019 version. The areas in the catalogue, if eligible, can enjoy the tariff exemption policy for imported self-use equipment within the total investment; foreign-funded enterprises that encourage industrial establishment in the western region can be taxed at a 15% corporate income tax; for intensive land use, foreign investment in manufacturing is encouraged For industrial projects, land may be given priority.
The issuance of the Catalogue of Encouragement for Foreign Investment enables more foreign investment in line with the high-quality development direction of my country's national economy and society to enjoy preferential policies such as taxation, which is conducive to better stabilizing foreign investment expectations and confidence, and is conducive to better stabilizing the foreign investment base .
On December 31, 2020, the full text of the "Special Administrative Measures for Foreign Investment Access of Hainan Free Trade Port (Negative List) (2020 Edition)" was released. The 2020 version of the Free Trade Port’s negative list has 27 items, which is the same as the 2020 version of the national and free trade trials. The 33 items and 30 items of the district's negative list of foreign investment access have been further reduced, and some items have been partially liberalized, supporting the opening of the Hainan Free Trade Port first.
The "Overall Plan for the Construction of Hainan Free Trade Port" was officially announced on June 1, 2020. The market access of Hainan Free Trade Port was greatly relaxed, foreign investment implemented the pre-access national treatment plus negative list management system, and the Hainan Free Trade Port was formulated and introduced Negative list of foreign investment access. The formulation and promulgation of the 2020 version of the free trade port negative list is an important measure for my country to improve the level of investment liberalization and facilitation of the Hainan Free Trade Port and accelerate the formation of an internationally competitive open policy and system.
On January 4, 2021, the "Notice on Further Optimizing the Cross-border RMB Policy to Support Stabilization of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment" was released. The notice includes five parts and 15 articles, covering the promotion of higher-level trade and investment RMB settlement facilitation, Further simplify the cross-border RMB settlement process, optimize the management of cross-border RMB investment and financing, facilitate the cross-border receipt and payment of RMB under personal current accounts, and facilitate the use of RMB bank settlement accounts for overseas institutions. The implementation of the content of the notice will further play the role of cross-border RMB business in serving the real economy and promoting trade and investment facilitation. Statistics show that in the first 11 months of last year, China’s foreign trade imports and exports increased by 1.8% in RMB and 0.6% in U.S. dollars, both achieving positive growth; the use of foreign capital increased by 6.3% in RMB and U.S. dollars. 4.1%; foreign investment basically remained stable.
Since the outbreak of the epidemic, China has introduced a series of policy measures to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, which have achieved remarkable results, effectively boosting foreign investment confidence, further demonstrating my country's determination to open up to the outside world, and helping to build a new development pattern.