Overseas Investment Policy Bows Wednesday
Post Date: 13 Apr 2010 Viewed: 498
China will unveil a new policy Wednesday to attract overseas investment, a leading official from China's top economic planning agency said at the Boao Forum for Asia Saturday.
This policy will be jointly announced by three government departments at a press conference Wednesday, deputy minister of the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) Zhang Xiaoqiang said, without elaborating.
He said that China's investment environment is healthy, which has encouraged foreign companies to invest in the country.
"China will strictly restrict foreign-invested manufacturing that consumes too much energy and resources, or causes heavy pollution," he said.
However, China encourages investment in the high-tech and service sectors and other fields that would harness the country's advantages in its labor force, Zhang said.
Debate over whether or not the climate in China has worsened for foreign investors has been heated lately.
Zhang said the world should take a positive attitude toward foreign investment policy in China and pay attention to the country's actual situation.
Due to the global downturn, cross-border investment declined 40 percent globally last year, while China's foreign direct investment dropped only 3 percent from 2008.
"Politicians and the media tried to prove with their mouths but entrepreneurs answered the question with their real action," Zhang said.
Zhang made the remarks as a growing number of Western companies are complaining of a deteriorating investment environment in China.
Google closed its Internet search service last month in the Chinese mainland but directed users to its uncensored search engine in Hong Kong, after threatening to leave China due to censorship and attacks by hackers.
Charles-Edouard Bouee, Asia president of strategy for consulting company Roland Berger, told the Global Times that every foreign company is seeking success in China.
"For me, I want to be the most international of the Chinese firms or I want to be the most Chinese of international firms," he said.