Opening to foreign business to boost industrial upgrade

China's moves to expand foreign companies' investment options will accelerate the upgrade of the country's economic structure and encourage many domestic businesses to deepen reform and break their monopoly operation, experts said on Thursday.

Those moves include allowing global companies to establish new business through mergers and acquisitions of domestic firms and ensuring that foreign companies can send their profit back to either their home countries or other global markets any time they want, as well as encouraging them to participate in the ongoing mixed-ownership of State-owned enterprises, according to a document released by the State Council on Wednesday.

"Even though China does not lack capital, it is necessary to boost inbound flows of foreign capital, pushed by upgrading industrial structure, demand for advanced technologies and global resource allocation," said He Manqing, director of the Foreign Investment Research Institute of the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.