Breaking News: 2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment Released
On February 19, 2025, the 2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment was officially unveiled. Against the backdrop of a complex and ever-changing global economic landscape, this plan signals the Chinese government's unwavering commitment to further opening up, while also providing more opportunities and safeguards for foreign enterprises operating in China. Below are the key highlights of the plan:
1. Expanding Market Access in an Orderly Manner to Offer More Opportunities for Foreign Enterprises
The 2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment emphasizes the importance of "expanding market access in an orderly manner," particularly in sectors such as telecommunications, healthcare, and education. The plan proposes to broaden pilot programs in these areas and accelerate the implementation of related foreign-invested projects. This means that foreign enterprises will have the opportunity to participate in more sectors of the Chinese market, especially in emerging fields such as biotechnology and wholly foreign-owned hospitals, where they will gain greater market access.
Additionally, the plan explicitly states the removal of foreign investment restrictions in the manufacturing sector, further shortening the negative list for market access, and ensuring equal treatment for both domestic and foreign enterprises in terms of market entry.
2. Enhancing Investment Promotion and Continuously Improving the Business Environment
To further boost foreign investment attractiveness, the plan proposes to strengthen the "Invest in China" brand and conduct overseas investment promotion activities through coordinated efforts between central and local governments. This indicates that China will place greater emphasis on targeted investment attraction, tailoring strategies to the characteristics of different investment sources. Moreover, the plan encourages foreign enterprises to engage in equity investments in China and supports multinational companies in establishing investment entities within the country, further enhancing the convenience of foreign investment.
Notably, the plan highlights intensified efforts to attract investment in key sectors, particularly in high-tech industries, elderly care services, culture and tourism, and healthcare services. These measures will not only help meet the diverse service consumption needs within China but also provide foreign enterprises with more market opportunities and collaboration prospects.
3. Strengthening Open Platforms and Enhancing the Efficiency of Free Trade Zones
Regarding the development of open platforms, the plan proposes to deepen reforms in the management system of development zones, enabling national-level economic and technological development zones and high-tech zones to play a more significant role in stabilizing foreign investment. Furthermore, the plan emphasizes the implementation of a Free Trade Zone (FTZ) upgrade strategy, accelerating the rollout of core policies for the Hainan Free Trade Port, and creating a highland for attracting foreign investment. As the forefront of China's opening-up, FTZs will intensify stress testing in foreign investment access and continue to expand institutional openness in rules, regulations, management, and standards.
4. Strengthening Service Support to Enhance the Experience of Foreign Enterprises
To ensure smoother development for foreign enterprises in China, the plan proposes to facilitate the implementation of major and key foreign-invested projects while enhancing policy support and service guarantees. In particular, the plan encourages financial institutions to provide more financing services to foreign enterprises, supporting them in expanding their investment and operational scale.
Additionally, the plan highlights measures to facilitate personnel mobility, including expediting negotiations on mutual visa exemption agreements and optimizing port visa policies, thereby further easing cross-border travel for employees of foreign enterprises.
On February 20, during a regular policy briefing by the State Council Information Office, an official from the Ministry of Commerce's Foreign Investment Department introduced that the 2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment includes a total of 20 policy measures. In the next steps, relevant departments will roll out supporting policy documents, forming a comprehensive "1+N" policy package to stabilize foreign investment.
Sinobravo Policy Research Team will continue to monitor the progress of subsequent supporting policies and provide timely analysis. Stay tuned for updates.
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