By Luo Shanshan, Recently, an Australian named Jack was pleasantly surprised when he attempted to link his Visa card to WeChat Pay and Alipay, two of the most frequently used Chinese mobile payment platforms, during a visit to his wife’s family in China.
The whole process was incredibly smooth, he said, adding that it took him less than a minute to complete, without the need to verify information with his passport.
In the past, Jack often relied on his wife to pay when visiting China. But this time, thanks to the streamlined process for foreigners to link overseas bank cards to mobile payment apps, he could go out and make purchases independently with just his smartphone.
From expanding visa-on-arrival, e-visas, and visa-free travel policies to enhancing the convenience of electronic payments, China has implemented a series of measures in recent years to make it easier for foreigners to work, study, and travel in the country.
These efforts have provided a better experience for visitors like Jack, showcasing China’s caring attitude in the country’s opening-up and boosting the appeal of the Chinese market.
China’s steps toward greater openness have been steady and robust. Since the beginning of this year, China has rolled out multiple pragmatic policies in areas of concern to foreign investors, opening new doors of opportunities.
On March 22, the Cyberspace Administration of China released a set of regulations on promoting and standardizing cross-border flows of data to ensure the lawful and orderly free flow of data.
On April 10, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology announced pilot programs in four regions to further open up the value-added telecom sectors.
Vigorously promoting institutional opening-up, aligning with high-level international economic and trade rules, and actively fostering a world-class, market-oriented business environment governed by a sound legal framework are the focal points of China’s push for higher-level opening-up.
Recently, China’s State Council issued an action plan to steadily promote high-level opening up and make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, mandating equal treatment for eligible products manufactured by domestic and foreign-invested enterprises in government procurement activities.
China’s Ministry of Commerce also released a negative list for cross-border services trade, for the first time establishing a nationwide negative list management system for cross-border trade in services. It emphasized that services and their providers in sectors not included on the list will be treated equally, whether at home or abroad.
Further deepening reforms and speeding up the building of a unified national market that is efficient, standardized, open, and allows fair competition will provide fertile ground for the development of all market entities, including foreign-invested enterprises.
The opportunities presented by China’s high-level opening up are widely acknowledged by foreign investors. In the recently released 2024 Global Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index by the renowned management consulting firm Kearney, China’s ranking rose from 7th last year to 3rd, topping the list for emerging markets.
Various foreign business associations and institutions in China have expressed optimism about the country’s economic prospects, with most foreign-invested enterprises still viewing China as an important investment destination.
Investing in China means investing in the future, and more foreign companies are continuing to increase their investments in the country.
In Beijing, the wholly foreign-owned securities firm Standard Chartered Securities has officially commenced operation. Biopharmaceutical company Novo Nordisk announced an additional investment of around 4 billion yuan (about $552 million) to expand its sterile preparations production in Tianjin. In Zhangzhou, southeast China’s Fujian province, the construction of a China-Saudi Arabia ethylene project with a total investment of around 44.8 billion yuan has kicked off.
In the first quarter of this year, the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises in China reached 12,000, an increase of 20.7 percent, with actual utilization of foreign capital amounting to 301.67 billion yuan, remaining at a historically high level. An ever-opening China continues to be a prime investment destination for foreign businesses.
China will never cease its steps of reform and opening up. As the world’s second-largest economy, China has established, after years of development, sound, and solid fundamentals and cultivated an open-minded approach to sharing opportunities with the world through its opening up. An increasingly open and developing China will undoubtedly create new and greater opportunities for global development.
