China SCIO | December 26, 2024
Lianhe Zaobao:
How does the Chinese government plan to boost private investors' confidence and attract more foreign investment? What measures will you take to further improve the business environment? Thank you.
Zheng Shanjie:
Thank you. I'd like to invite Ms. Zheng Bei to answer these questions.
Zheng Bei:
I'll answer these questions. This is an important issue. The Sept. 26 CPC Central Committee Political Bureau meeting called for intensifying efforts to regulate business-related law enforcement and oversight, enhance the market-oriented, law-based, and internationalized business environment, and assist enterprises in overcoming challenges. The NDRC will adopt a problem-oriented approach and work continuously with relevant departments to improve the business environment. We'll make further efforts mainly in three aspects.
First, we'll further improve the legal framework involving enterprises. We'll accelerate legislation promoting the private sector to ensure equal treatment of state-owned and private enterprises by law. We'll also revise the Public Bidding Law to remove local protectionism and ensure fair market competition for all ownership types. Additionally, we'll facilitate revising regulations on payments to SMEs to secure timely payments from government offices, public institutions, and large enterprises. We'll also move faster to abolish laws, regulations, and policies that treat enterprises unfairly, removing institutional obstacles to fair competition.
Second, we'll further regulate law enforcement and oversight involving enterprises. We'll refine standards on administrative discretion, adopting more accommodative and prudential regulation and soft law enforcement to avoid or minimize the impact on normal business activities. We'll regulate cross-regional administrative enforcement by establishing an assistance system to prevent selective and profit-driven law enforcement. We'll also strengthen oversight over administrative law enforcement, taking resolute steps against arbitrary charges, fines, and quotas and holding those responsible accountable.
Third, we will further help enterprises address their difficulties. We will fully leverage the inter-ministerial joint meeting mechanism to promote the growth and expansion of the private sector, as well as build and make the best use of the comprehensive service platform for developing the private economy. We will strengthen the multi-tier regular exchange mechanism at national, provincial, city and county levels so as to listen to the opinions and suggestions of enterprises and solve pressing difficulties and problems that concern them most. For example, to address enterprises' primary financing concerns, we've expanded policies allowing loan renewals without principal repayment through the inter-ministerial joint meeting mechanism. The scope has been expanded for a limited time from micro- and small-sized enterprises to medium-sized enterprises in sci-tech industries, manufacturing and agriculture, raising loan renewal efficiency and reducing the cost of funds.
As Mr. Zheng noted, we'll implement five measures to attract more foreign investment: intensifying efforts to attract and stabilize investments, further expanding opening-up, launching more major foreign investment projects, encouraging foreign enterprises to deepen their presence in China, and supporting foreign businesses in succeeding here. Thank you.