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Negative list for foreign investors unveiled in FTZ

China released a negative list today for foreign investment in its newly opened free trade zone in Shanghai, allowing overseas participants to invest as freely as their domestic peers in business fields beyond the list.

The list, covering 18 sectors covering agriculture, manufacturing, finance and public services, specifies all the business areas in which restrictions will remain for foreign enterprises in the zone.

According to the list published early this morning, foreign investment in banking, finance companies and insurance firms will remain subject to related restrictions. Foreign ownership in joint-venture securities firms and fund management companies is limited to 49 percent.

Foreign investment in research and development and manufacturing of automobile electronic devices can only be made through joint ventures. The proportion of foreign investment in production of battery for new energy vehicle is up to 50 percent.

Foreign investors are forbidden from having a share in news agencies, publishing companies and radio and film producing companies. Internet bars and the gambling industry are barred from the zone, according to the list.

Foreign companies can carry out businesses in any sectors that are not included in the list and it offers more leeway for foreign participants, Dai Haibo, deputy director of the zone administrative committee, said yesterday in a press conference following the zone’s opening.

Business types included in the list accounts for 17.8 percent of all the 1,069 detailed sectors in the zone, according to Dai. 

A registration system has been introduced for setting up an operation in areas not included in the list, replacing the current approval system. It will simplify procedures and reduced processing time from 29 days to four days.

The list is a temporary version for 2013 and the zone regulators will update the list to better facilitate liberalization policies testing in the zone. 

The measure is deemed as one of priorities among major reforms in the zone as China is trying to cut the power of bureaucrats and reduce government intervention to empower private enterprises to play a bigger role in its economy.




 

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