Beijing - China's
State Council, the country's Cabinet, issued on Tuesday new measures to
further open the world's second-largest economy to foreign investment,
including easing restrictions on investment in banks and other financial
institutions.
The move
comes as President Xi Jinping seeks to project China as a leader in combating
increasing global protectionism. Xi defended globalisation in a speech at the
World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday amid mounting public hostility in the
West.
China itself, however, has been the
target of complaints from foreign business groups who have criticised its slow
pace of market reforms and say its national security regulations and industrial
policies are at odds with its reform goals.
The Cabinet
said in a statement posted on its website that China would
lower restrictions on foreign investment in banking, securities, investment
management, futures, insurance, credit ratings and accounting sectors.
No further
details were provided, nor a timetable for their implementation. The country's
state planner had indicated at the end of last year that China would take measures to relax
foreign investment in certain sectors.
The
government will also allow foreign-invested firms to list on the Shanghai and Shenzhen
exchanges and a new third board, and also allow them to issue corporate and
convertible bonds, it added.
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The Cabinet
said the measures were intended to create a "fair and competitive"
environment that puts "domestic and foreign companies on an equal footing."
"The
devil is always in the details," said Arthur Kroeber, partner of Gavekal
Dragonomics. "How the rules get implemented will be very
important."
Restrictions
on foreign investment in telecommunications, internet, culture, education and
transportation sectors will be opened "in an orderly way", the State
Council said.
The
measures will also cancel restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacture
of rail equipment, motorbikes, fuel ethanol, and oils and fats processing, while
easing restrictions on unconventional gas, including oil shale, oil sands and
shale gas, and mineral resources.
Foreign
investment in oil and natural gas projects will shift from an approval based
system to a registration system, the notice said.