Li encourages further steps to attract foreign business, widen market access

Premier Li Keqiang on Friday called for greater strides in reform and opening up to stabilize foreign trade and investment, attract more foreign businesses to China and widen market access in additional sectors.

Li made the remarks in Beijing while visiting offices tasked with facilitating market operations and coordinating foreign trade and investment.

The novel coronavirus outbreak has posed severe challenges to the global economy, and global financial markets have seen large fluctuations, making the external environment for China's development even more complex and challenging, he said.

The more difficult the external environment is, the more important it is for the country to step up reform and opening-up, he said.

Li highlighted the creation of a better business environment as key to attracting more foreign businesses, saying that the Law on Foreign Investment must be implemented across the board and policies within pilot free trade zones must be carried out at a quicker pace and extended to more areas.

He urged relevant departments to make public the newly shortened negative list for foreign investment at an early date and to widen market access to more areas, especially the services sector.

The government will ensure equal treatment for foreign businesses and their domestic counterparts in its various policies helping businesses get through the outbreak, Li said.

He underlined the need to adopt multiple measures such as online communications, consultations and contract signing to attract more foreign businesses to China and to enable easier customs clearance to facilitate the growth of cross-border e-commerce and other new business modes of foreign trade.

Sound preparations must be made for the China Import and Export Fair to help businesses further international cooperation and expand the international market, the premier said, adding that the stability of global supply chains must be safeguarded.

Li also heard reports on the operations of the retail sector and the situation of commercial, trade and logistics sectors getting back to work. It is important to seize opportunities arising from the sustained positive momentum of epidemic containment and help more businesses from affected sectors resume work and operations while preventing the outbreak from bouncing back, he said.

The government must prioritize the role of emerging sectors, promote the integration of online and offline sectors and energize the retail sector, he said.

Authorities must ensure that aid packages can be enjoyed by both large enterprises and smaller businesses, whether they have resumed operations or not, the premier said.