Clear sign that opening-up is moving on: China Daily editorial

In a sign that China will continue to attract foreign investors with improved investment environment and better services, the central authorities have pledged to further facilitate the border entry and exit of executives and technicians of multinationals and foreign-invested companies and their families, under the premise of sound COVID-19 pandemic prevention and control.

This is one of the 15 measures the National Development and Reform Commission and five other central government departments laid out in a notice issued on Tuesday to facilitate foreign investment in the country with a focus on the manufacturing sector. The notice also vows to deepen the implementation of the negative lists for foreign investors, and encourage foreign investment in high-end equipment, basic components and key parts for advanced manufacturing as well as high-tech industries.

The encouraging news comes after several Chinese airlines, including China Eastern and China Southern, recently announced that they will soon increase the number of scheduled international flights, indicating that the country is now positioning itself to gradually restore trade and economic activities as well as other international exchanges to pre-pandemic levels.

The almost three-year COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial negative impacts on world trade and global industrial and supply chains, causing many countries to face possible recession. China has responded to the challenge, by trying to strike a delicate balance between growth and a pandemic control and prevention approach that puts people's lives first. The fact that China, the world's largest trading and manufacturing nation, has managed to basically keep its economic activities on a normal track thanks to its dynamic clearing policy, has enabled it to keep playing its pivotal role as the ballast for world economic growth.

The latest easing of border restrictions implies the country will build on the progress it has made in pandemic prevention and control to further normalize its business and trade activities with other countries, injecting new confidence that it will continue to promote the benefits of globalization and integrate more closely with the world economy.

Despite the pressure it faces to prevent the pandemic rebounding within the country and keep imported cases at bay, China has maintained its position as the world's major destination for foreign investment. Its actual use of foreign direct investment surged 16.4 percent year-on-year to 892.7 billion yuan ($122 billion) in the first eight months of this year. In particular, FDI in high-tech manufacturing rose 43.1 percent from the same period a year ago.

All this paves the way for the country to continue to push ahead with high-quality development and high-level opening-up.