Ministry of Commerce of China,According to the new regulation announced by the National Health Commission and the National Health Works Administration, foreign investors will be allowed to operate hospitals in the cities of Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Nancing, Sucou, Fucou, Guangzhou, Xinjiang and the province of Hainan.
Foreign investors will also be able to operate in the biotechnology sector in Beijing and Shanghai, Guangdong and Hainan provinces, conduct research and application in human stem cell and gene diagnostic technologies, and apply for nationally valid mass production and marketing licenses.
All restrictions on manufacturing have also been lifted
While the Chinese Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Committee have published an updated version of the ‘negative list’ that includes sectors where foreign capital investments are prohibited, the new version of the negative list, which was last updated in 2021, includes restrictions on all sectors in the manufacturing sector. restrictions on foreign investmentremoved.
In the new list, the number of restricted sectors has been reduced from 31 to 29.
Apart from the manufacturing sector, Beijing,Shanghai, Shinjin and In HaynanForeign capital restrictions on cost-added telecommunications services such as cloud computing, internet data centers, content delivery networks and internet service providers have been lifted in free trade pilot zones.
Decline in foreign investment is troubling
The government’s move to open up sectors such as healthcare, biotechnology and information services, in addition to manufacturing, is seen as an initiative to regain investor confidence in the face of the decline in foreign direct investments.
In the Chinese economy, where the fragility continues after COVID-19, foreign investments are losing momentum due to the US’s investment restrictions in some sectors and the approach of European countries to eliminate risks related to economic dependence.
Coming to China in foreign direct investmentsThe decline experienced in 2023 continued in the first seven months of 2024. According to data from the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, foreign investments amounted to 539.5 billion yuan ($76.1 billion) in the period of January-July 2024. Investments decreased by 30 percent in the first seven months compared to the same period last year.
According to information released by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, the number of newly established foreign-capital companies in the first half of 2024 increased by 14.2 percent on an annual basis, reaching 26,870.
In the January-June period, the amount of foreign capital actually used in the manufacturing sector increased by 2.4 points compared to the same period last year, reaching 141 billion 860 million yuan.
GermanyAnd Singaporeranked first with 18.1 percent and 10.5 percent of their investments in China, respectively.
At the same time, in the information released by the General Administration of Customs of China (GACC), it was noted that the export and import volume of goods trade in the country in the first six months of this year increased by 6.1 percent compared to the same period last year, reaching a record level of 21.17 trillion yuan (about 2.98 trillion dollars).
