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1st LD-Writethru: Premier urges stronger reform in financial service in Shanghai FTZ

Xinhua, November 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang has urged financial service institutions in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone (FTZ) to carry out stronger financial reforms and opening up.

The negative list approach should be expanded to financial services such as banks, securities, insurance and funding companies, so as to better manage foreign investment, Li was quoted as saying by a Thursday press release following his inspection of the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China on Wednesday.

First piloted in the Shanghai FTZ in 2013, the negative list model states sectors and businesses that are off limits to foreign investment, and will be adopted nationwide in the next five years.

It will help motivate foreign investors, ensure the protection of foreign investors' rights and better allocate their money.

Since the launch of the Shanghai FTZ in 2013, China has tested a number of new policies including negative list management on foreign investment, preferential trade and financial policies, and opening up more industries to foreign investors.

Local authorities and financial institutions should continue to carry out effective readjustment measures, support the opening up of the capital market to the world, and improve the supervision and regulation mechanism for the finance industry, Li said.

China's four pilot Free Trade Zones (FTZ) have seen significant progress in attracting foreign investment with the help of financial reforms.

In the Jan.- Sept. period, the number of newly registered foreign-invested enterprises in the Shanghai FTZ rose 52.6 percent year on year while such entities more than tripled in the Guangdong, Tianjin, and Fujian province FTZs, data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) showed. Endi