Greater role for the market

Reform of the government examination and approval system will facilitate economic vitality and help increase transparency

For foreign investors, doing business in China has required completing quite a lot of approval procedures, as these were a necessity for China-foreign cooperative projects. But thanks to China's recent move to accelerate streamlining the government approval items, many of those procedures have been abolished.

Among the latest batch of adjusted administrative approval items announced in July are those concerning foreign cooperation in the oil, natural gas and coalbed gas sectors, and the hiring of principals at schools jointly run by domestic and foreign partners, all of which no longer require approval.