On October 12, 2021, the Ministry of Commerce released the 14th Five-Year Plan for the Utilization of Foreign Investment, clearly setting out the guiding principles, development goals, and key tasks in the utilization of foreign investment by China during the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-25), to facilitate investment and business operation by foreign investors.

China aims to become a major foreign investment destination in the world and an innovation and high-end manufacturing hub in East Asia by 2035, with remarkable improvements in both the quantity and quality of foreign investment utilization, according to the new development plan.

The country will aim to attract a total of $700 billion in foreign investment during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. By 2025, high-tech sectors are expected to account for 30 percent of total foreign investment inflows, up from 29.6 percent in 2020.

The development plan said that pilot free trade zones and ports are set to account for about 19 percent of total foreign investment inflows by 2025, up from 17.9 percent in 2020.

As China vows to promote opening-up in more areas and at a deeper level, the plan called for continuously expanding market access while improving the "pre-establishment national treatment plus negative list" management system for foreign investment. The management system puts areas unsuitable for opening on a "negative list", while treating foreign investors no less favorably than Chinese investors at the "entrance stage".

There will be further reductions in the national, pilot free trade zone and port versions of the negative lists for foreign investment, and the country will further open up the manufacturing, services and agriculture sectors, while gradually easing foreign investment shareholding limits to allow foreign investors a controlling stake or sole ownership in more areas.

The plan also called for improving the transparency of the negative lists, and strictly adhering to the principle of "no prohibition means allowing foreign investment to enter" in areas not included on the negative lists.

The plan urged expanding market access in key areas, with efforts to orderly promote the further opening-up of sectors such as telecommunications, the internet, education, culture and medical care, and reduce requirements in areas such as personnel qualifications in sectors including law and transportation.

It also called for steadily promoting opening-up in financial sectors such as banking, securities, insurance, funds and futures, and steadily strengthening opening-up in the capital market, such as lowering requirements for quality foreign investors to strategically invest in listed companies.