China’s new investment law offers legal guarantee for high-level opening up: deputies
By Huan Xiang from People’s Daily
The enaction of the new foreign
investment law would provide a stronger legal guarantee for a new round of
high-level opening up, and also declare China’s determination and confidence in
driving high-quality growth with high-standard opening up, deputies to the
ongoing annual legislative session said after reviewing the latest draft of the
proposed law.
A highlight of the draft law is to optimize
business environment and build a more attractive market by managing domestic
and foreign enterprises under a unified set of rules, said Wang Suilian, a
deputy to the 13th National People's Congress (NPC).
A fair market environment should be
created to ensure that foreign enterprises are willing to invest in and can
develop well in China, so that they could stay in China rather than leaving in
days, added the national legislator, who is also deputy director of the
Standing Committee of Shandong Provincial People’s Congress and chairperson of
the federation of industry and commerce of Shandong province.
Upon adoption, the unified law will
replace the three existing laws that have been working as China’s legal
guarantee for foreign capital absorbing after China embarked on the journey of
reform and opening up.
The law on equity joint ventures was put
into effect in 1979, opening the door to attracting foreign investors. The ones
on non-equity joint ventures and wholly foreign-owned enterprises were enacted
in the 1980s responding to the different needs of foreign investors.
The three laws could hardly catch up
with the changing requirements in deepening reforms, as the country’s reform has
entered the deep water zone where tough challenges must be met, while opening
up also faced with new updates, said Zhang Sujun, vice president of the China
Law Society.
The replacement underscores China’s
efforts to further facilitate foreign investment with detailed institutional
design, added Zhang, also a NPC deputy.
The new law will help China attract more
foreign investors, as it includes more measures to protect the foreign
investment than the previous management regulations, said Feng Fan, director of
Jiangxi Newstar Law Firm.
It also incorporates a series of
innovative provisions on promoting, protecting and managing those investment,
said the NPC deputy, adding that if the new law is adopted, supporting rules
should be introduced as soon as possible.
“Equal treatment of domestic and foreign
investment is high on the agenda of the draft,” said Zhou Hongjiang, president
of Shandong-based wine producer Changyu.
The draft makes it clear that the state
shall manage foreign investment according to the system of pre-establishment
national treatment plus a negative list, added the national legislator, hailing
that it also stands for progress and improvement of China’s foreign investment
legal system.
Deputies also suggested providing
foreign investors with national treatment on intellectual property rights (IPR)
protection.
Mai Jiaomeng, NPC deputy also the
director of the Market Supervision Administration of Guangdong province,
advised tightened law enforcement on IPR protection in the future, citing the
stepped-up efforts to crack down on IPR infringement crime, locate counterfeit
sources, and punish repeating and malicious infringements.
He also suggested efforts to improve
coordination mechanisms of administrative law enforcement and judicial protection,
better local legislation, raise the amount of statutory compensation for IPR
infringement, and accelerate the building of centers on IPR protection and
guarantee.
A Tesla’s Model 3 is being exhibited at
the foundation-laying ceremony of the Phase I project of Tesla’s super factory
in Shanghai. The largest foreign-invested manufacturing project in Shanghai
started construction in Lingang area on January 7, 2019. (Photo: Xinhua News
Agency)
China’s new investment law offers legal guarantee for high-level opening up: deputies
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