Better serving investors to attract foreign capital

Foreign investors eyeing the Chinese market yet worried about the possible legal and policy restraints they might encounter in the country can draw comfort from the message that emanated from Boao, a coastal town in Hainan province, on Thursday.

In his keynote speech at the annual conference of Boao Forum for Asia, Premier Li Keqiang said China is more than determined to further open up its economy, including its financial market, in the new era, and provided a timeline for some specific measures to be adopted to improve the business environment to attract more foreign capital.

True to the spirit of the forum of promoting economic integration and closer cooperation, foreign banks, and securities and insurance companies stand to benefit as China lowers its market access threshold and lifts the restrictions on the foreign ownership of such institutions. These moves are aimed at improving the allocation of resources, which in turn will boost the real economy in a country with the world's second-largest stock market, and third-largest bond and insurance markets.