(Yicai Global) Oct. 26 -- The Chinese government is proposing optimizing the investment environment for overseas investors and providing greater support for foreign-backed businesses in order to encourage more foreign investment in the country.

A raft of new measures including allowing foreign capital greater access to the manufacturing sector, welcoming more key overseas-funded projects, letting eligible foreign-backed businesses go public on the mainland bourses and facilitating international business travel appeared in a document recently released by a number of government departments including the macro-economic planner, the National Development and Reform Commission.

It is the first major response to the call for China’s continuous opening up made at the 20th National Congress for the Communist Party of China that concluded at the weekend, Wang Jun, director of the China Chief Economist Forum, told Yicai Global.

Key foreign-funded projects will be given a leading role to play and the government will provide support for land acquisition, environmental impact assessment, planning and energy consumption, so as to enable them to be ready as soon as possible, the document said.

Foreign investments in advanced equipment and basic components will be encouraged, the document said. More overseas investment in research & development, design, modern logistics as well as in the new energy and green sectors will be welcomed.

By encouraging foreign investors to engage more in the manufacturing, high-tech and modern service industries, international firms will be better able to meet the Chinese market’s demands, trends and sustainable development opportunities, said Pang Ming, chief economist and director of research at US commercial real estate company Jones Lang LaSalle’s China branch.

The government is also mulling allowing qualified foreign-backed enterprises to go public on the mainland bourses and to issue corporate bonds in order to make it easier for them to raise funds, the document said.

This would mean that foreign-invested businesses are receiving national-level treatment, which is very inviting to such enterprises, the Securities Daily reported today, citing Liang Si, a researcher at the Bank of China Research Institute.

International business travel must be facilitated, the document said. So long as Covid-19 safety protocols are observed, entry and exit into and out of the country needs to be made easier for executives and skilled workers at multinational companies and foreign-backed enterprises as well as their families.

Hiring staff from overseas has become extremely difficult during the pandemic, Wang said. Clearer procedures need to be proposed for business travelers, such as whether to shorten the current seven days of quarantine plus three days of at-home observation, and other fast conduit routes.

There were 286 China-foreign joint ventures listed on the mainland bourses as of Oct. 25, 79.3 percent of which were in manufacturing.

Editor: Kim Taylor