Gao Feng, spokesman of Ministry of Commerce at a regular press conference, said that the Ministry of Commerce will continue to improve services for foreign-funded enterprises and foreign investors, expand the level of market opening, and strive to release a new catalogue of industries encouraging foreign investment as soon as possible on Sep. 17.

In the first eight months of this year, actual foreign investment in China reached 619.78 billion yuan, up 2.6% year on year. In August, the actual utilized foreign capital nationwide reached 84.13 billion yuan, up 18.7% year on year, the fifth month in a row that the amount of foreign capital absorbed in a single month increased.

Gao Feng said that China's actual use of foreign capital has increased against the trend, and the achievements have not come easily under the current situation that global transnational direct investment is still in a severe downturn. This is because the Party Central Committee and the State Council have attached great importance to stabilizing foreign investment and introduced a series of policies and measures to stabilize foreign investment. China's business environment has been constantly improved. At the same time, it fully demonstrates that China's economy is highly resilient and has great potential, and its attraction to foreign investment will only grow. Next, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to work to create a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized business environment, continue to improve services for foreign-funded enterprises and foreign investors, and expand the level of market opening so that global investors can share China's development opportunities and achieve mutual benefit and win-win results.

He also said that public consultation on the draft of the Industrial Catalogue for Encouraging Foreign Investment (2020 version) ended on August 30. The public is very concerned about the revision and has given a lot of valuable feedback. At present, the Ministry of Commerce and the National Development and Reform Commission are seriously studying, will speed up the implementation of the procedures, and strive to announce as soon as possible.

In the first eight months of this year, China's outbound non-financial direct investment reached 48045 billion yuan, down 2.6% year on year. Referring to the situation of outbound investment against the backdrop of anti-globalization and rising protectionism, Gao Feng said that the Chinese government's position on outbound investment cooperation by Chinese enterprises is consistent. Although the COVID-19 epidemic is still spreading around the world, the world economy is in the doldrums, international trade and investment are shrinking, unilateralism and trade protectionism are on the rise, and uncertainties and destabilizing factors are on the rise, in the long run, it is still the consensus of all countries to strengthen development cooperation.

Gao Feng said that at present, China's fight against the epidemic has achieved major strategic results, the national economy has maintained a steady recovery momentum, and with enterprises returning to work and production, there is a strong willingness and solid foundation for overseas investment and cooperation. The Chinese government will continue to encourage and support Chinese enterprises to carry out outbound investment cooperation in accordance with international rules and make joint efforts with relevant countries and enterprises to achieve mutual benefit and common development and inject strong impetus into world economic recovery.

On the negotiation process of the China-EU Investment Agreement, Gao Feng said that since the beginning of this year, China and the EU have overcome the impact of the epidemic and stepped up the pace of negotiations. Six rounds of formal negotiations have been held, and positive progress has been made in the negotiations on the text and the list. At the previous high-level Economic and Trade Dialogue, the two sides confirmed significant progress made on the issue of fair competition. It also represents a major step forward in the overall negotiating process. At the video summit between Chinese, German and European leaders held on Sep. 14, leaders reaffirmed their commitment to speed up negotiations on the China-EU Investment Agreement and achieved the goal of completing the negotiations by the end of this year. In accordance with the important consensus reached by the leaders, China and the EU have mapped out the agenda for the next round of negotiations. The 32nd round of negotiation will be held next week. Next, the two sides will continue to maintain the sound momentum of negotiations, focus on the remaining text issues and market access issues, actively and pragmatically explore solutions to bring benefits to businesses and investors of the two sides at an early date.