Chongqing- Recently, Chongqing had issued the Notice of the Chongqing Municipal People's Government on Issuing Measures for Further Utilising Foreign Capital (the Measures for short), which are important Measures to accelerate the construction of inland opening-up. On June 18, the press conference of analyzing the Measures was held, explaining how the Measures are important to the city.

As the only municipality in central and western China, Chongqing is an important strategic support for the development of the western region. Located at the junction of the Belt and Road and the Yangtze River Economic Belt, foreign investment of Chongqing plays a crucial role in social development and the construction of inland opening-up highland.

At present, Chongqing has introduced a total of 293 foreign companies in the Fortune Global 500 settled here, with foreign investment exceeding 100 billion US dollars. Meanwhile, there are more than 6,000 foreign investment market players in Chongqing have contributed more than 1/2 of the city's total import and export value and more than 1/10 of the employment-population and taxation of the city, becoming an important part of the national economy.

The implementation of the Measures by Chongqing will further stimulate market vitality, boost investor confidence, and accelerate the construction of a high-quality foreign capital cluster in Chongqing.

Moreover, the Measures consists of 25 measures in five parts, including the further opening-up, further increasing investment promotion, further optimizing the business environment, protecting the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment, and strengthening organizational security.

After analyzing the Measures, there are three main characteristics.

New measures to optimize the business environment

The Measures closely follow the requirements of the World Bank's business environment assessment, further deepens the reform of the policy, Simplify Administration and Decentralization, Integrate Decentralization with Management, and Optimize Services, of foreign investment.

At the same time, the Measures actively makes new initiatives in the planning of land-use approval for foreign-invested projects, project construction approval, chain enterprise review and registration, and cross-border financing. Additionally, it proposes the approval of planned land-use for foreign-invested projects in aspects of "multi-inspection in one", "multiple certificates in one", "multi-test in one", and "multi-verification in one".

The food business licenses of multinational brand chain businesses can be centralized registered after the implementation of the "applicant commitment system".

For foreign-funded projects with a construction area of less than 3,000 square meters, the construction drawing review will not be carried out. However, it will implement the notification commitment system and lifetime responsibility system for construction, survey, and design individuals.

Besides, there is a series of innovative policies, including raising the macro-prudential adjustment parameters for full-caliber cross-border financing from 1 to 1.25.

New ideas to promote investment promotion

Chongqing will establish a team of "administrative service stewards". At the same time, Chongqing will build a list system of foreign investment services.

Also, the city will innovate the incentive mechanism for investment evaluation and encourage professional social organizations and investment promotion institutions to introduce foreign investment projects. Each district and county (development zone) may give certain rewards and reserve policy space.

Furthermore, the establishment of regular communication mechanisms between municipal leaders and important foreign business associations, overseas multinational companies, and key foreign-invested enterprises in Chongqing has been constructed, strengthening the institutional arrangements for foreign investment promotion.

New achievements to protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign business

Chongqing will establish and improve the complaint mechanism for foreign-invested enterprises with "one-stop service", enhance the construction of government's credit, strengthen the normative implementation of regulatory policies. At the same time, it will improve the transparency of the formulation of administrative, regulatory documents. In this way, it will play an important role in the judicial protection of intellectual property rights.

Moreover, to intensify the functional responsibilities of the Criminal Investigation Team (Chongqing Intellectual Property Criminal Protection Center) against counterfeit and shoddy commodities to reinforce the investigation and handling of intellectual property infringement cases.

Furthermore, Chongqing also supports foreign capital to participate in the formulation of national and industry standards. Foreign investors can participate in government procurement according to law equally. Chongqing will effectively protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment and ensure fair treatment of foreign capital.

Click the link to check the specific content of 25 measures

Notice of the Chongqing Municipal People’s Government on Issuing Measures for Further Utilising Foreign Capital There are 25 specific measures issued to support expand opening-up, increase investment promotion, and optimize the business environment.