Championing 'world first' mindset

The central government also plans to open new free ports in Shanghai and other select cities as another step to open its economy to foreign players and further support trade and maritime-related services.

Wei said free ports will be one of the reforms and focus areas in the opening-up process. That will help the niche area to maintain its advantages over other arrangements like free trade zones, rather than being a test field or a pioneer that aims at guiding more arrangements.

Sun Yongfu, former director-general of the European Department of the Chinese Ministry of Commerce, said China today is open to different ideas. It does not just want to put its own ideas for-ward, but also wants to listen to others. It is about what countries can do in cooperation with each other, jointly, bilaterally and multilaterally.

This is borne out by recent measures. The Ministry of Commerce revised and promulgated the Interim Administrative Measures for the Record-filing of the Incorporation and Change of Foreign-invested Enterprises last year. It also incorporated foreign capital in mergers and acquisitions of enterprises with business scope not subject to special access management measures into record-filing administration. The measures mean foreign enterprises can expect a level playing field in China from now on.

The 2018 China Business Climate Survey Report, based on significant responses from more than 400 member company representatives out of the 849 polled, was released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China last week. The survey was done between Oct 23 and Nov 26 last year.

Its report last week said about 46 percent of respondents are confident China will further open its market to foreign investment within the next three years. Last year, a similar survey showed only 34 percent of respondents were confident in this context.

Small wonder, FDI in the Chinese mainland soared to an all-time high of 877.56 billion yuan ($136.4 billion) in 2017, up by 7.9 percent from 2016. FDI mainly flowed into the country's high-tech industries such as electrical, telecommunication, medical device manufacturing and service businesses, official data show.

Meantime, the number of newly established foreign companies, including Siemens AG, BP Plc, Thales Group, Starbucks Corp and Airbus SE, also rose to 35,652, up almost 28 percent year-on-year.

Tang Wenhong, director-general of the Department of Foreign Investment Administration in the Ministry of Commerce, said China has constantly deepened the reform of "streamlining administration, delegating powers, improving regulations and optimizing services" by realizing comprehensive online record-filing of incorporation and change of foreign-invested businesses outside the negative list to significantly improve convenience.

China also pledged it will further integrate its own rules with international trade rules, and ease market access. It vowed to substantially open up the services and financial sectors and create a more attractive investment environment for multinational corporations or MNCs.

Some MNCs are already readying to reap benefits from this environment. Montreal, Canada-based Bombardier Inc plans to bid for more than 30 rail transportation projects in China, including high-speed trains, propulsion and signalling equipment for rail vehicles, monorails, and automated people mover systems this year.