State Council Document No. 11 of 2023

To the People's Governments of Provinces, Autonomous Regions, and Municipalities directly under the Central Government; All Ministries and Commissions of the State Council, and All Directly Affiliated Institutions:

Actively attracting and utilizing foreign investment is an important part of advancing high-level opening-up to the outside world and constructing a new open economic system. In order to further optimize the foreign investment environment, enhance the level of investment promotion work, and increase the efforts to attract foreign investment, the following opinions are hereby put forward.

I. General Requirements

Guided by Xi Jinping's Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for a New Era, fully implement the spirit of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, uphold the general principle of pursuing progress while maintaining stability, fully implement the new development philosophy in a comprehensive, accurate, and thorough manner, construct a new development pattern, promote high-quality development, better coordinate the domestic and international situations, create a first-class market-oriented, rule-of-law-based, and internationalized business environment, give full play to the advantages of China's super-large-scale market, attract and utilize foreign investment with greater intensity and effectiveness, and contribute to the promotion of high-level opening-up and the comprehensive construction of a socialist modernized country.

II. Enhancing the Quality of Foreign Capital Utilization

1. Increasing the intensity of introducing foreign capital in key areas. Support foreign-invested enterprises in China to establish research and development centers, collaborate with domestic enterprises on technological research and development, and encourage foreign-invested enterprises and their research and development centers to undertake major scientific research projects. In the field of biopharmaceuticals, accelerate the landing and production of foreign-invested projects in compliance with relevant laws and regulations. Encourage foreign-invested enterprises to conduct clinical trials of cell and gene therapy drugs that are already listed overseas, and optimize the application procedures for the listing of overseas-produced drugs that are transferred to China. Support foreign-invested enterprises in advanced manufacturing, modern services, the digital economy, and other fields to collaborate with various vocational colleges (including technical schools) and vocational training institutions to provide vocational education and training.

2. Playing the role of the service sector in expanding opening-up pilot demonstration. Align with international high-standard economic and trade rules, and increase the efforts of the comprehensive opening-up pilot demonstration of the service sector. Encourage the exploration of asset-backed financing through intellectual property, equity, and related tangible assets, and support the standardized exploration of intellectual property securitization. Gradually increase the pilot areas for the transfer of equity investment and venture capital. Prudently increase the openness of value-added telecommunications services in pilot areas such as domestic Internet virtual private networks (foreign capital share not exceeding 50%), information services (limited to application stores, excluding network publishing services), and Internet access services (limited to providing Internet access services to users).

3. Expanding channels to attract foreign investment. Encourage eligible foreign investors to establish investment companies and regional headquarters, and the enterprises invested in by relevant investment companies can enjoy treatment as foreign-invested enterprises in accordance with relevant national regulations. Actively implement the Qualified Foreign Limited Partner (QFLP) domestic investment pilot, establish and improve a convenient foreign exchange management system for QFLP, and support the direct use of overseas-renminbi raised for relevant investments within China.

4. Support the gradual transfer of foreign-invested enterprises. Relying on various open platforms such as free trade pilot zones, national-level new areas, and national-level development zones, encourage collaboration between the eastern region and the central and western regions, the northeastern region, and border areas through mechanisms such as sharing of output and benefits to promote industrial transfer cooperation. Foreign-invested enterprises that carry out comprehensive gradient transfers within China shall be supervised based on the customs credit level already obtained in their original regions.

5. Improving the mechanism for promoting the construction of foreign investment projects. Improve the working mechanism for major and key foreign investment projects, strengthen element support, policy support, and service guarantees, and promote early contracting, early landing, early commencement, and early production of foreign investment projects. Introduce policies and measures to promote green power consumption, support foreign-invested enterprises to participate more in green certificate trading and inter-provincial green power trading.

III. Safeguarding National Treatment for Foreign-invested Enterprises

6. Safeguard the participation of foreign-invested enterprises in government procurement activities in accordance with the law. Introduce relevant policy measures as soon as possible to further clarify the specific standards for "produced within China." Innovate cooperation and procurement methods, support foreign-invested enterprises to innovate and develop globally leading products in China through measures such as first-time purchasing. Promote the revision of the Government Procurement Law. Conduct special inspections to ensure fair participation of business entities in government procurement activities, and investigate and deal with violations of the law and regulations that impose differential treatment on foreign-invested enterprises in a timely manner, and promptly report typical cases. If foreign-invested enterprises believe that their rights and interests have been damaged by government procurement activities, they can raise questions and complaints in accordance with the rules. The financial departments at all levels shall accept and handle them fairly in accordance with the law.

7. Support foreign-invested enterprises to participate equally in the formulation of standards in accordance with the law. Promote the full-process information disclosure of standard formulation and revision, ensure that foreign-invested enterprises participate in standardization technical committees and standard formulation work on an equal basis with domestic enterprises in accordance with the law. Encourage foreign-invested enterprises to formulate corporate standards on their own or jointly with other enterprises and provide standardization services. Promote national-level service industry standardization pilots in service industry opening-up pilot demonstration areas.

8. Ensure that foreign-invested enterprises enjoy equal support policies. Policies issued by local authorities to support industry development and expand domestic demand, except as stipulated by laws and regulations or involving national security, shall not exclude or discriminate against foreign-invested enterprises and their products and services by restricting brands or using foreign brand as a reason, and shall not set additional conditions for foreign-invested enterprises and their products and services to enjoy policies.

IV. Continued Strengthening of Foreign Investment Protection

9. Improve the mechanism for protecting the rights and interests of foreign-invested enterprises. Improve the mechanism for dealing with international investment disputes, strengthen the responsibility of relevant parties, enhance dispute prevention, and handle international investment disputes properly. Vigorously crack down on malicious operations that infringe upon the legitimate rights and interests of foreign-invested enterprises by publishing and disseminating false and untrue information and copyright infringement through the Internet. Establish and improve the complaint coordination mechanism for provincial-level foreign-invested enterprises, and promote the resolution of issues involving multiple departments or policy-related and systemic issues.

10. Strengthen administrative protection of intellectual property rights. Improve the system of administrative rulings for patent infringement disputes, and strengthen the enforcement of administrative rulings. Support regions to establish intellectual property workstations based on exhibitions, and accept copyright, patent, trademark, and other intellectual property applications for exhibited products, and provide effective preventive measures against infringement. Strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights in the procurement of pharmaceuticals and medical consumables. Enterprises participating in procurement activities must commit to not violating the Patent Law and other laws and regulations. For products involving intellectual property disputes, relevant departments should strengthen communication and consultation and conduct procurement activities in accordance with laws and regulations. For products that have been determined by administrative rulings of intellectual property departments or effective judgments of people's courts as patent infringements, timely measures such as non-procurement and cancellation of eligibility for selection shall be taken.

11. Increase the intensity of administrative law enforcement of intellectual property rights. Resolutely crack down on acts that infringe upon the intellectual property rights of foreign-invested enterprises, and conduct special law enforcement actions against cross-regional and chain-type infringement violations. Improve the rapid collaborative protection mechanism for intellectual property rights, accelerate the handling of cases with clear facts and conclusive evidence in accordance with the law, establish and improve an integrated online and offline law enforcement mechanism, and appropriately simplify procedural requirements.

12. Standardize the formulation of foreign trade and economic policies and regulations. Various types of foreign trade and economic policies and measures should focus on enhancing transparency and predictability, solicit opinions from foreign-invested enterprises in accordance with the law, and reasonably set transition periods for newly issued policies and measures.

V. Enhancing the Level of Investment and Business Operations Convenience

13. Optimize the policy for the stay of foreign employees of foreign-invested enterprises. Continuously optimize entry and exit policies and measures, and provide convenience for the entry, exit, and stay of foreign executives, technical personnel, and their families of foreign-invested enterprises. Guide Chinese embassies and consulates in key investment-attracting countries or regions to continue providing convenience for visa applications for executives of multinational corporations through measures such as first-time purchase. Provide convenience for the permanent residency application for foreign senior management and technical talents employed and recommended by qualified foreign-invested enterprises. Improve the convenience of applying the permanent residency identity card of foreigners in public transportation, financial services, medical security, and Internet payment scenarios.

14. Explore secure management mechanisms for streamlined cross-border data flow. Implement the requirements of the Cybersecurity Law, the Data Security Law, the Personal Information Protection Law, and establish a green channel for eligible foreign-invested enterprises to efficiently conduct exit security assessments of important data and personal information, promote orderly and secure flow of data. Support Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area, and other regions to pilot and explore the establishment of a freely flowing general data list in the process of implementing exit data security assessments, personal information protection certification, and filing of outbound personal information standard contracts, and build service platforms to provide compliant data cross-border flow services.

15. Coordinate and optimize law enforcement inspections related to foreign investment enterprises. Coordinate the promotion of the "double random, one public" supervision and credit risk-based management, further reduce the proportion and frequency of inspections for foreign-invested enterprises with low credit risk. Support regions with conditions to coordinate inspections related to corporate law enforcement such as safety production, environmental protection, and product quality within their statutory authority, and realize "one entry, multiple inspections."

16. Improve service and support for foreign-invested enterprises. Establish and improve the system of roundtable meetings for foreign-invested enterprises. Establish and improve a coordinated mechanism for major and key foreign investment projects at all levels, coordinate and resolve difficulties and problems encountered in project contracting, construction, and production in a timely manner. Handle the signing of certificates of origin for free trade agreements and provide convenience for foreign-invested enterprises to enjoy tariff reduction and exemption policies.

VI. Intensifying Financial and Tax Support

17. Strengthen the protection of funds for promoting foreign investment. Through the central special funds for foreign trade and economic development, increase support for landmark foreign-funded projects, and promote the rapid implementation of projects. Improve the use of foreign investment promotion funds by local governments at all levels and increase support for key industrial chain investments. Support regions to provide support to key multinational corporation investment projects within the scope of their statutory authority.

18. Encourage reinvestment by foreign-invested enterprises within China. Implement the policy of temporarily not levying withholding income tax on reinvestment of profits earned by foreign investors within China, and provide guidance and counseling to clarify the scope of policy application, declaration materials, and procedures, and carry out specific implementation work by local commerce, taxation, and other departments.

19. Implement relevant tax preferential policies for foreign-invested enterprises. Guide and assist foreign individuals in enjoying tax-free preferential policies for housing subsidies, language training fees, and children's education expenses in accordance with relevant national regulations. Guide and assist foreign-funded research and development centers in enjoying tax policies for supporting technology innovation imports and value-added tax refunds for the purchase of domestic equipment in accordance with relevant national regulations.

20. Support foreign-invested enterprises to invest in encouraged industries. Support regions, within the scope of their statutory authority, to implement supporting incentive measures for foreign-invested enterprises that meet the requirements of the Catalog of Industries for Encouraged Foreign Investment. Implement supporting policies and measures for exempting import taxes on equipment for encouraged foreign-invested projects in accordance with relevant policy measures.

VII. Improving Foreign Investment Promotion Methods

21. Improve investment promotion mechanisms. Conduct a series of activities for the "Invest in China" campaign, continuously build the "Invest in China" brand, establish and improve working mechanisms, guide and assist localities in conducting foreign investment promotion work, and fully realize the goal of utilizing foreign investment to stabilize and improve quality. Encourage regions with conditions to establish investment promotion cooperation mechanisms with relevant countries or regions and build investment promotion platforms in various forms. Encourage regions to explore more effective and flexible employment mechanisms and salary systems for non-civil service and non-institutional positions in foreign investment promotion departments and teams, strengthen the allocation of foreign investment promotion personnel through inter-regional, inter-level, and inter-departmental transfers, accelerate the establishment of a diversified foreign investment promotion work system, and promote the formation of a multi-participant and flexible and efficient coordination and linkage mechanism for foreign investment promotion involving government, investment promotion agencies, business associations, intermediary institutions, and leading enterprises in the industrial chain.

22. Facilitate overseas investment promotion work. Support regions in establishing normalized investment promotion delegations to conduct investment attraction, negotiations, and exhibitions overseas, and invite foreign investors to China for investment negotiations. For major and key foreign investment projects, issue multiple-entry business visas to foreign personnel related to the projects in accordance with work needs.

23. Expand channels for foreign investment promotion. Strengthen the connection between Chinese embassies and consulates and key enterprises in host countries or regions, promote Chinese investment opportunities. Support regions to enhance communication with the Ministry of Commerce and China Council for the Promotion of International Trade's overseas trade and investment promotion institutions, fully leverage the role of investment promotion institutions (representative offices) established overseas by localities, strengthen communication and cooperation with overseas trade and investment promotion institutions, and enhance collaboration.

24. Optimize the evaluation of the effectiveness of foreign investment promotion. Establish and improve an evaluation system for the effectiveness of foreign investment promotion, focus on the actual contribution of investment to economic and social development, prevent using investment scale and actual investment amount as the basis for assessing and awarding or punishing enterprises and individuals, effectively prevent the manipulation of data in foreign investment promotion, and malicious competition.

VIII. Strengthen Organizational Implementation

All regions, departments, and relevant units should resolutely implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee and the State Council, elevate political positioning, do a good job in further optimizing the foreign investment environment, and increasing the intensity of attracting foreign investment, and fully realize the goal of utilizing foreign investment to promote stability and improve quality. Encourage regions to introduce supporting measures based on local conditions and enhance the synergistic effect of policies. The Ministry of Commerce, in conjunction with relevant departments and units, should strengthen guidance and coordination, promote policy dissemination, promptly implement policy measures, create a more optimized investment environment for foreign investors, and effectively boost foreign investment confidence.

State Council

July 25, 2023

(Note: The text has been abridged.)