23rd April 2025: Q1 FDI

Описание: This episode contains segments on:





• China’s actual use of foreign direct investment in the first quarter;
• Guideline for improving cross-border flow of financial data;
• Work plan to accelerate services opening up; and
• Latest developments regarding China’s efforts at opening its healthcare sector to foreign participation





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Correction: the actual use of FDI in March soared 13.2 per cent compared to last year.










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Read more:






China Q1 actual use of FDI (MOFCOM)






https://www.mofcom.gov.cn/xwfb/rcxwfb...






Guideline for improving cross-border flow of financial data






https://english.www.gov.cn/news/20250...






Work plan to accelerate services opening up






https://english.www.gov.cn/policies/p...






https://wzs.mofcom.gov.cn/zcfb/art/20...






Latest developments regarding China’s efforts at opening up its healthcare sector to foreign participation






https://english.news.cn/20250421/9622...






Transcript:






RUI: Hello and welcome to China ShortCuts,






MARIANN: the European Chamber’s weekly catchup on China’s business landscape.






RUI: This episode was recorded on 23rd April 2025.






(MUSIC)






RUI: In March, the actual use of foreign direct investment or FDI in China increased year-on-year, which softened the overall fall in FDI utilisation registered in the first quarter.






MARIANN: Data released by the Ministry of Commerce on 18th April showed that the actual use of FDI in March soared 13.9 (Correction: 13.2) per cent compared to last year. This helped offset the ongoing overall fall in the first quarter, which stood at 10.8 per cent year-on-year. This was the mildest rate of year-to-date decline recorded since December 2023. FDI used in the services sector in the first quarter was more than double what was utilised in manufacturing. The Ministry’s statement also specified that the amount of utilised FDI from the European Union rose almost 12 per cent year-on-year, however, no figures were provided for this.






(MUSIC)






RUI: On 17th April, the People’s Bank of China, the National Financial Regulatory Administration and four other departments jointly issued a guideline aimed at improving the cross-border flow of financial data.






MARIANN: The guideline specifies the conditions for cross-border data transfers as well as a list of data items permitted for export. It also lists outbound data transfer scenarios exempt from security assessments and over 60 categories of common financial business scenarios. The European Chamber has been advocating for the facilitation of intra-group data access in the financial industry, and has been urging the Chinese authorities to ensure that data management requirements are clear and allow cross-border intra-group data flows.






(MUSIC)






RUI: On 18th April, the Ministry of Commerce issued a work plan aimed at accelerating the opening up of the services sector. The plan includes 155 pilot tasks in key areas including e-commerce, healthcare, financial services and tourism.  






MARIANN:  Some of the pilot tasks outlined include attracting foreign financial services companies to provide services for green projects and promoting the development of international factoring services. In pilot zones, foreign-invested travel agencies will be allowed to offer outbound travel services, and the caps on foreign ownership for app stores will be removed. The work plan also expands the list of pilot zones from the previous 11 provinces and cities by adding nine additional cities, including Ningbo and Xiamen.






(MUSIC)






RUI: At a press conference held on 21st April, the National Health Commission said that China now has more than 150 joint venture and wholly foreign-invested medical institutions.






MARIANN:  The Commission pointed to the figure to underline the progress made in opening up the healthcare sector. A key development in this regard was that a pilot work plan released last November granted approval to eight cities and one province to allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals. A key challenge is...