BEIJING: China will continue to push for greater market access for foreign investors as part of its ongoing efforts to expand high-level opening-up and build a unified national market, according to the Commerce Ministry.

Analysts said this signals the country’s resolve to build a fully open market, deepen market-oriented reforms and remove barriers within the fragmented domestic market, which will stimulate market vitality and significantly boost market confidence, especially among foreign businesses.

They said the country is dedicated to opening wider to the outside world, and they expect that more efforts will be made to expand opening-up in fields such as the modern services sector.

“The unified national market we are constructing will be a globally oriented and fully open market, which will undoubtedly provide a better environment and a bigger platform for various market entities, including foreign companies,” Zhou Qiang, director of the ministry’s department of market system development, said at a news briefing on Monday.

Zhou said that China will appropriately shorten the negative list for foreign investment to further cancel or relax restrictions on market access. It will align with high-standard international economic and trade rules to deepen reforms in relevant areas and steadily advance institutional opening-up.

More efforts will also be made to better serve foreign companies and create a world-class environment for foreign investment, he said.

 - China Daily