On 19 June 2015, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued Notice No. 196 of 2015 to promote the participation and further development of e-commerce activities from foreign firms in China. This policy becomes effective immediately. 
 
According to the notice, foreign firms can now set up 100% owned e-commerce companies nationwide. Previously, foreign firms could only have its 100% owned e-commerce business as part of the e-commerce pilot programme in Shanghai Free Trade Zone. 
 
The affected trading partners are selected based on the report "2015 Jan-Apr FDI Statistics" published by the Ministry of Commerce. These countries contribute around 95.3% of the FDI from January 2015 to April 2015.