ANNOUNCEMENT 10 Mar 2015
March 10th 2015 - The Chinese Ministry of Commerce issued the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment (2015 edition), which entered into force on April 10th 2015. Compared to the its predecessor issued in 2011, the amended Catalogue contains changes in the following aspects:
NUMBER OF INTERVENTIONS
2
SOURCE
PRC Ministry of Commerce, March 10th 2015. (国家发展改革委 商务部令第22号 外商投资产业指导目录(2015年修订))
http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/article/b/c/201503/20150300911747.shtml
More sectors are liberalised. The number of restricted sectors has been decreased from 79 to 38. The number of forbidden sectors has been decreased from 38 to 36. Manufacturing sectors are substantially liberalized. In the manufacturing sectors, restricted sectors are reduced from 34 to 8, among others, Chinese wine and yellow wine production, manufacturing of threshing and curl tobacco leaf, petroleum processing and coking industries and chemical industries. The 2015 Amendment’s general policy encourages increased R&D activities and the adoption of new technologies, methods, materials and equipment. A handful of industries has been added to the “encouraged” category, which includes, among others, e-commerce, industrial design, construction design, garment design, development/application of the Internet of Things (IOT) and senior-care facilities. Services sectors such as photography, banks, trust companies, currency brokerage firms and insurance companies are more liberalized.
AFFECTED SECTORS
AFFECTED PRODUCTS
However, the new regulation is also more restrictive in one respect: some new sectors such as geographical investigations, internet publishing, and cultural relic auctions etc. are added to the forbidden catalogue. Foreign investment in legal services related to Chinese law is forbidden according to the new Catalogue.