China gears up for all-around opening up

During China’s most important annual political meetings, the Two Sessions this year, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang delivered a government work report, which summarized China’s achievements in the past five years, set economic and social development targets and policy directions, and highlighted focuses of the government work in 2018. One of the proposals is to have all-around opening up.

How is China going to do it?

One of the concrete steps is that China will completely open up the general manufacturing sector, and will ease or lift restrictions on the shares of foreign-owned equity in companies in sectors including banking, securities, fund management, futures and financial asset management.

Moreover, China will simplify procedures for setting up foreign-invested enterprises, and lower import tariffs on automobiles, some everyday consumer goods, etc.

What is more, China is preparing to host the first ever China International Import Expo in Shanghai.

The point is to encourage trade and investment liberalization and facilitation. In 2017, China has become the largest trader in the world, with a total trade volume of 27.79 trillion yuan. That’s about 4.4 trillion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%.

As 2018 marks the 40th anniversary of China’s launch of reform and opening up, you’ll see more progress to be made in international cooperation under the Belt and Road Initiative, more industrial capacity cooperation between China and other countries, and simply more to be done by China to foster a world-class business environment.