New Shanghai Policy Further Expands Foreign Capital Access
Tang Shihua
DATE:  Sep 19 2019
/ SOURCE:  yicai
New Shanghai Policy Further Expands Foreign Capital Access New Shanghai Policy Further Expands Foreign Capital Access

(Yicai Global) Sept. 19 -- Shanghai aims to promote the local economy by further opening up to and attracting overseas investment and protecting overseas investors' rights, per a policy document the city government issued yesterday.

The eastern Chinese megacity will fully implement the pre-entry national treatment plus the management of the negative list of areas barred from investment from abroad. No agency or organization may restrict overseas investment access in areas off this no-go list.

The document also requires greater protection for overseas-invested enterprises to enjoy national treatment after admission.

Shanghai will relax or cancel the access conditions for foreign-invested equity in financial institutions and strive for the national financial industry opening measures project to help set up overseas-invested equity investment firms in Shanghai, while supporting foreign-invested companies to expand financing channels by listing on the Chinese stock market and the National Equities Exchange And Quotations -- also known as the New Third Board -- and in issuing company bonds.

The city government will also encourage and support startups from abroad and overseas-invested enterprises to build up innovative companies and service institutions in Shanghai, and the transformation and industrialization of high-tech achievements developed by overseas-invested firms will enjoy the same treatment as domestic companies and equal policy and financial support.

Overseas investors' investment, profits, capital gains, proceeds from asset disposals, intellectual property license fees, compensation and liquidation proceeds may also be freely remitted in yuan or foreign exchange.

The government encourages and protects overseas investors and foreign-invested firms in technical cooperation with various market entities and scientific research institutions based on prevailing business rules, with no resort to administrative means to force overseas investors and foreign-invested firms to transfer technology or to change the policies applicable to them.

Shanghai will also liberalize investment and advance the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone and the Free Trade Zone Lingang New Area, and increase access in the key areas of telecommunications, insurance, securities, scientific research and technical services, education and health. Opening up to the outside world, relaxing restrictions on foreign capital firms' registered capital and investment methods seeks to turn the city into a pioneering portal for comprehensive opening up to overseas capital.

Editor: Ben Armour

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Keywords:   Shanghai