Foreign capital is an important force to participate in the construction of Chinese path to modernization and promote the common prosperity and development of China's economy and the world economy. Recently, the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission released the "Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment in 2025", proposing to expand the pilot opening up of telecommunications, healthcare, education and other fields, accelerate and strengthen the comprehensive pilot work of expanding the opening up of the national service industry, further reduce negative list items for market access, and other measures, releasing a positive signal of further expanding opening up to the outside world. Currently, the international industrial division of labor system and economic and trade rules system are accelerating their restructuring, and open cooperation in the service industry is increasingly becoming an important force in promoting global development. From 2019 to 2023, the average annual growth rate of cross-border investment in the global service industry is 6.7%, and the proportion of cross-border investment has also increased from 49.2% to 51.4%. The comprehensive pilot demonstration of expanding the opening up of the national service industry is an important measure for China to promote high-level opening up to the outside world. In the past 10 years, China has established 11 comprehensive pilot demonstration provinces and cities for expanding the opening up of the national service industry. Seven rounds of 15 pilot programs have been launched in relevant provinces and cities, and more than 190 innovative achievements have been replicated and promoted nationwide in nine batches. Zhu Bing, Director of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that in 2024, 11 pilot demonstration provinces and cities will attract 41.26 billion US dollars of foreign investment in the service industry, accounting for about 50.2% of the total foreign investment in the national service industry. The role of pilot demonstrations in "testing the system for the country and seeking development for the local area" has been fully demonstrated. The Action Plan proposes to accelerate and strengthen the comprehensive pilot work of expanding the opening up of the national service industry. On the basis of accelerating the pace of pilot implementation, expand the pilot areas and include more places with good service industry development foundations and strong regional and industrial representativeness in the pilot scope. At the same time, more independent opening-up measures will be introduced in the fields of telecommunications services, healthcare, finance, etc., and priority will be given to implementing them in pilot provinces and cities, giving new content and tasks to the pilot. Continuously promoting the improvement of investment facilitation level, there are new business opportunities hidden between the increase and decrease of the "dual list". The number of restrictions on foreign investment access in the 2024 version of the national negative list has been reduced from 31 to 29, with zero restrictions on foreign investment access in the manufacturing sector. This is an important landmark achievement in promoting high-level opening-up in China, "said Yao Jun, Director of the Planning Department of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. In 2024, the actual use of foreign investment in the manufacturing industry exceeded 220 billion yuan, and the proportion of actual use of foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing industry reached 11.7%. The actual use of foreign investment in the medical equipment and instrument manufacturing industry, as well as the computer and office equipment manufacturing industry, increased by 98.7% and 21.9% respectively. While the negative list for foreign investment access continues to be reduced, the Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment is gradually increasing. At the end of 2024, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce publicly released a draft for soliciting opinions on revising and expanding the Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment. The draft has about 1700 entries, an increase of more than 200 from the 2022 version. The head of the Department of Utilizing Foreign Investment and Overseas Investment of the National Development and Reform Commission, Huazhong, introduced that the new version of the catalog will focus on adding entries in advanced manufacturing, modern service industry, high-tech, energy conservation and environmental protection, and also encourage more foreign investment in the central and western regions and the northeast region. The parallel use of the "dual list" has timely and accurately outlined the vast opportunities in the Chinese market for foreign investors. In 2025, with the continuous increase in investment attraction and stabilization efforts, relevant departments will continue to do a good job in providing services and guarantees for foreign-funded enterprises. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, is organizing the compilation of the "100 Questions and Answers on Foreign Investment in China", hoping to help foreign investors better understand the foreign investment environment in China, better serve the investment landing, production and operation of foreign-funded enterprises, and the work and life of foreign personnel in China. Huazhong will further improve the landing services of landmark major foreign investment projects. At present, the first eight batches of 66 landmark major foreign investment projects have completed investments of approximately 94 billion US dollars, of which 33 projects have achieved full or partial production, achieving good social and economic benefits. This year, we will continue to strengthen the guarantee of project elements, accelerate the implementation of the first eight batches of projects, and timely release the ninth batch of projects. At the same time, we will continue to carry out special actions to serve foreign-funded enterprises, conduct one-on-one visits to foreign-funded enterprises, timely understand and coordinate solutions to the difficulties and problems encountered by enterprises. According to statistics, by the end of 2023, the number of existing foreign-funded enterprises in China reached 465000, an increase of 46000 from 2019. In 2024, there were 59000 newly established foreign-funded enterprises in China, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%. Zhu Bing stated that the overall number of foreign companies investing in China is still increasing. Overall, the Chinese market has maintained a strong attraction for foreign investment. Ling Ji, Deputy Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative for International Trade Negotiations, said that the measures and policies in the Action Plan will be implemented and effective by the end of 2025, fully demonstrating the confidence and determination of the Chinese government to adhere to high-level opening-up and vigorously attract foreign investment. (New Society)