Photo: People's Daily
Chinese President Xi Jinping unveiled policies to further open China's economy, as he delivered a keynote speech at the opening ceremony of the Boao Forum for Asia on Tuesday.
“China will speed up the opening-up of the insurance sector and ease restrictions of establishing new foreign financial institutions in China and expand their business scope,” Xi said. “The limits of foreign capital on the automobile sector will also be reduced.”
A more attractive investment environment will be created and transparency will be enhanced, Xi said.
“We will strengthen connections using international rules on trade and economics, enhance transparency, intensify protection on property rights, apply a law-based approach, encourage competition and oppose monopoly,” said Xi.
China established new organizations, including a state market regulatory administration, and has made big adjustments to government departments and agencies, in a bid to overcome institutional drawbacks which restrict the decisive roles played by the market and limit functions carried out by the government, Xi noted in the speech.
Xi also mentioned that China will revise the foreign investment negative lists, and comprehensively implement a management system for pre-establishment national treatment and negative lists.
China will further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights, said Xi, “We encourage normal exchanges and cooperation on technology, and we will protect foreign enterprises’ legal intellectual property.”
Xi described strengthening intellectual property protection as the most important goal of improving the property rights protection system, and the biggest incentive to increase China's economic competitiveness.
China is going to restructure the State Intellectual Property Office in 2018, to strengthen its law enforcement so as to encourage deterrence with the laws, according to Xi.
"China does not seek trade surplus; we have a genuine desire to expand imports and achieve greater balance of international payments under the current account," he said.
China will significantly lower import tariffs for vehicles and reduce import tariffs for other products in 2018 and accelerate the process of acceding to the WTO Government Procurement Agreement, Xi added.
The President also hopes developed countries will stop imposing restrictions on normal and reasonable high-tech products and relax restrictions on the export of high-tech products to China.
(Compiled by Lu Wenao, Qu Qiuyan, Qiao Wai and Du Mingming)