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December 30, 2011

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Foreign investment welcomed

CHINA is to welcome foreign investment in hospitals and financial leasing firms from next year, but not in automobile factories or polysilicon plants, the National Development and Reform Commission said yesterday.

Updated guidelines for foreign investors, published on the website of China's top economic planning agency, outlines sectors where foreign investment will be encouraged, restricted or banned.

The guidelines, last updated in 2007, will take effect from January 30.

"The goal of the latest update is to optimize foreign investment structure, push forward technology innovation and industrial upgrading," the commission said.

The new regulations expand the areas where foreign investment is encouraged, and reduces those where foreign capital had been restricted, it said.

For example, China has added textiles, machinery and the chemical industry to sectors where foreign investment is encouraged in a bid to upgrade traditional manufacturing industries.

Also, foreign investment in the production of parts for green vehicles, recycling of electronic products, used battery management and mechanical machinery are welcomed under the new guidelines, with the aim of nurturing strategic emerging industries.

China also lifts the restriction for foreign investment in hospitals and financial leasing firms but deletes automobiles, polysilicon and coal chemistry from the encouraged list.

The guidelines have served as the basis for a range of policies regarding foreign investment in China, the second-largest destination of foreign investment after the United States.

Foreign investment has been a key driver of China's economic growth over the past three decades.

China attracted US$103.7 billion in the first 11 months of this year, up 13.1 percent from a year earlier. Of that, US$48.7 billion was pumped into China's services industry - the first time that it surpassed foreign investment in manufacturing, which attracted US$47.3 billion.

In November, foreign investment reported an annualized drop of 9.76 percent, the first decline in 28 months, which was mainly due to economic problems in the eurozone and the US.

The Shanghai Commission of Commerce said yesterday that foreign investment contracted in the city is expected to show a 31.5 percent increase this year to an all time high of around US$20 billion, boosted by projects such as the Disneyland deal. Foreign investment in actual use has reached over US$12 billion, also a historic high.




 

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