Approved by the State Council, National Development and Reform Commission and Ministry of Commerce released announcement No.33，showing the full text of the Catalogue of Advantageous Sectors for Foreign Investment in Central and Western Regions 2017 (Revised), which will be carried out from March 20, 2017. The Catalogue of Advantageous Sectors for Foreign Investment in Central and Western Regions 2013 (Revised) shall be repealed simultaneously.

The revision of the catalogue is a major move to implement the strategic deployment of the central committee and the State Council on building open economic system and lead foreign investment in central and western region. According to the Circular of the State Council on Expanding Opening-up and Positively Utilizing Foreign Investment (by the State Council, No.5 2017), catalogue 2017 will support central and western regions to undertake industrial transfer of foreign investment and improve open economic development.

The revision follows the new tendency of industrial transfer of foreign investment, makes full use of local comparative advantages, optimizes the structure of utilizing foreign investment and combines with the actual situation of FDI introduction. It contains 639 items, with an increase of 139 compared with the original version. The main changes are: 1. Promoting transformation and upgrading of traditional industry. Items like green food processing and construction of vegetable base with standard facility were added up in provinces with agricultural and animal husbandry advantages, which is to promote the transformation of agricultural production modes. 2. Supporting high-tech industrial development. Items like G6 substrate glasses for TFT-LCD or below, integrated circuit manufacturing, smart phone, laptop, and biological medicine, were newly added in some provinces to support electronic and medical industry cluster development. 3. Encouraging the acceleration of service sector development. In line with local situation, the new version added up items of partial producer services and life services. 4. Promoting the development of labor intensive industry. In provinces with advantages of labor force, the new version added up items of export-oriented textile, clothing and furniture to promote new export-oriented industry clusters. 5. Intensifying infrastructure and industry support. Items like public parking facility, electric vehicle charging facility and highway freight station were added up for some provinces to enhance transport and logistics network development. 6. Adjusting the original items to adapt to the new situation. Some items were improved to better reflect the actual situation of local attraction of investment.

The revision of catalogue has solicited opinions from the public online, listened to and absorbed opinions from all walks of life.

Catalogue of Advantageous Sectors for Foreign Investment in Central and Western Regions is important regional policy for China to attract foreign investment. It incorporates permissible and conditional foreign investment projects that can play regional advantages to enjoy preferential policies that were used to encourage foreign investment. The catalogue was released in 2000 for the first time, and the present one is the fourth version. Catalogue 2017 covers 22 provinces (region, cities) in central and western region, as well as Northeast China and Hainan province.

(All information published on this website is authentic in Chinese. English is provided for reference only.)