China steps up policy support to share opportunities with the world

Amadou Thera, a Malian businessman, takes great pleasure in showcasing the shea butter skincare cream produced by his workshop at various international fairs in China, where he always finds new clients.

"China's international fairs are really great platforms for enterprises in African countries to find new opportunities, and purchasers usually consider our agricultural products to be good value for money, thanks to China's zero-tariff treatment on most of them," said Thera.

More people are looking forward to sharing similar experiences of Thera in the future, as starting from Sunday, China will grant zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines to all the least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China.

The policy, which will make China the first major developing country to implement such an initiative, marks the latest move of the world's second-largest economy to open up its vast market and share growth opportunities with the rest of the world.

To advance institutional opening up, the country issued a guideline in October to promote the high-standard international economic and trade practices piloted in certain free trade zones in a wider region.

China has also continued to roll out policies to nurture fertile ground for foreign investors. Last month, the country pledged to build the Suzhou Industrial Park in east China's Jiangsu Province into a globally attractive two-way open hub.

Multinationals will be encouraged to establish R&D, sales and distribution centers in the industrial park to promote the development of the headquarters economy. Furthermore, qualified medical institutions will be encouraged to conduct clinical research in cutting-edge biopharmaceutical fields such as immune cell, stem cell and gene therapies.

In the same month, the new edition of the national negative list for foreign investment took effect, scrapping the two remaining items in the manufacturing industry on the previous list.

The items on the latest negative list, which outlines fields off-limits to foreign investors, have been further reduced to 29 items.

This fully demonstrates China's active willingness to expand mutual benefits and a clear attitude to supporting economic globalization, said Jin Xiandong, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, adding that further efforts will be made to improve the level of foreign investment liberalization and facilitation, and to optimize service for foreign-invested enterprises.

Besides the manufacturing sector, China is also pushing forward broader and deeper opening up in the service sector.

China announced in September that it would allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in certain cities and regions, including Beijing, Shenzhen and throughout the island of Hainan.

In October, the country decided to allow foreign investors to operate wholly-owned businesses such as internet data centers and engage in online data processing and transaction processing in certain areas as part of a pilot program to expand opening up in value-added telecom services.

The country's opening up efforts have made it a magnet for foreign investors. A total of 46,893 new foreign-invested firms were established across China in the first 10 months of 2024, up 11.8 percent year on year. Notably, FDI inflows into medical equipment and instrument manufacturing surged 61.7 percent, while inflows into computer and office device manufacturing grew by 48.8 percent in this period.

Opening up to the outside world is not just a matter of "opening the door." More importantly, it requires actively aligning with international economic and trade regulations as well as other high-standard rules, said Zhang Bin, deputy director of the Institute of World Economics and Politics at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Zhang underlined the need to enhance synergy between the domestic and international markets as well as resources to constantly cultivate and consolidate new advantages in international economic cooperation and competition.