China committed to further improving environment for foreign investors: Chinese Vice Premier

WASHINGTON — China has taken a variety of effective measures to provide a favorable environment for foreign investors, Chinese Vice Premier Wang Yang said here Tuesday.

In a speech to US and Chinese business leaders at a luncheon, Wang said China has set about allowing broader market access and a greater opening of its services sector.

"China has in recent years revised at its own initiative the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment Industries several times, leaving only 63 industries under restriction, 117 fewer than that of the 2011 version, down by an impressive 65 percent," he said.

Noting that two US financial institutions have just gained licenses to conduct bond underwriting and settlement businesses in China's interbank bond market, he said: "This is a result of the greater opening of China's financial sector."

In the 11 pilot free trade zones across China, the opening-up is broader in scope and greater in depth, he said, adding that China has already agreed in bilateral investment treaty negotiations to further open up its banking, securities and many other sectors.

Meanwhile, "China had also set about strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights," added the vice premier, noting that since 2013, the Chinese government has carried out over 170 special campaigns against unlawful trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy and investigated more than 1.3 million cases of criminal offenses.

Pointing out China remains a developing country and that China adopted the market economy system only a little over 20 years ago, Wang said: "We are reflecting on our own inadequacies and we will redress them with a problem-oriented approach."

"When it comes to China's reform and opening-up endeavor, our goals are well-defined, our path is clearly marked, and our steps are surely and steadily taken," he stressed.

"To give an analogy, when you look at a growing kid everyday, you could hardly notice any growth in him. But given a few years, you would be taken aback by how much he has grown," he said.

Wang is scheduled to co-chair the first China-US Comprehensive Economic Dialogue together with US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross on Wednesday. The dialogue is one of the four major dialogue mechanisms the two sides established in April.