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Despite the sudden outbreak of COVID-19, the Foreign investment Law (FIL) and its implementation regulations were not affected and came into force successfully. Now that they have been in force for more than half a year, how has China’s business environment improved, and what are some of the real changes for foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs)? Thank you.(2020-7-30)

The FIL and its implementation regulations come into force starting this year. We have replaced all review and filing requirements for establishing and modifying FIEs in the commercial sector with a notification system, and drastically shortened the negative lists. The business environment has seen more improvements, investment is further liberalized and facilitated, and FIEs have enjoyed greater benefits. Since the coronavirus first emerged, the operations of FIEs and Chinese companies have suffered equally. Following the decisions of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, MOFCOM established a special task force for key foreign investment projects. The special task force has worked with relevant local governments and authorities to assist FIEs and key projects. Their mandate involves major difficulties and problems throughout work resumption, such as the lack of medical supplies, raw material shortage, and entries of foreign business personnel. In the first half of this year, Paid-in foreign investment reached RMB472.18 billion, down 1.3% year-on-year, 9.5 percentage points smaller than that in the first quarter. In the second quarter, paid-in foreign investment grew by 8.4% year-on-year, representing a steady rise in foreign investors’ expectation and confidence. A recent MOFCOM survey found that 99.1% of FIEs would continue to invest and operate in China.

In the next step, we will roll out new measures to keep foreign investment stable while firmly implementing existing ones, so as to provide better services for FIEs and create a favorable, world-class business environment that’s governed by an improved legal framework. Thank you.

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