China attracts large amounts of foreign investment over past decade

The foreign investment that China has attracted in the past decade ranked in the top three worldwide, said the National Development and Reform Commission on Thursday, CCTV.com reported.

China's actual use of foreign investment reached 1.15 trillion yuan ($159.79 billion) in 2021, ranking second in the world, an increase of 62.9 percent from 2012, the report said.

The foreign investment in China from January to August of this year was 892.74 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 16.4 percent.

Since the Foreign Investment Law was fully implemented on Jan 1, 2020, China has taken concrete measures to encourage foreign investment and promote opening-up at a higher level.

In June 2017, China introduced its first negative list for foreign investment. Since then, the list has been shortened for five consecutive years to 31 items. The negative list for foreign investment in free trade zones was shortened to 27 items. The country also launched major opening-up measures in the automobile and finance sectors.

China has revised the Catalogue of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment several times, with the current 2020 edition owning 1,235 total items, and with the 2022 edition accelerating forward.

The country will introduce special policies to attract investment in the manufacturing sector, and push forward the implementation of major foreign investment projects, said the report.