Researching on foreign trade, international finance and international capital flow，the economies of Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan and their ties with the mainland economy; regional economic cooperation and the multilateral trade system; the dynamics and development trends of the world economy; and the development policies and experiences of major economies. It puts forward proposals on policy and strategy for China's reform and opening-up.

Building the database for Chinese industries, foreign trade and foreign investment utilized for analyzing and forecasting the economic impact of imports, exports and foreign investments on various industries. The database is also useful for analyzing economic structures and the degree of openness and economic performance in specific regions or sectors.

The main research fields include:

—Opening-up strategy, mid- and long-term planning and policy for opening-up

—Goods trade, trade development and reform; trade remediation; trade facilitation; processing trade policies

—Service trade, development and market opening-up of China's service trade; potential and environment for service export

—Cross-border investment, analysis of operations of foreign-invested enterprises; policies for utilizing foreign investment and policies for overseas investment

—International finance, balance of payment; exchange rates; regional monetary and financial cooperation

—Intellectual property rights (IPR), IPR protection; policies for technical innovation

—Policies for regional opening-up, opening-up policies for coastal, border and inland regions

—Policies for special economic areas, the relationship between the Chinese mainland and Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan

—Regional economic cooperation, regional economic cooperation between the ASEAN and China, Japan and Korea; prospects for regional economic integration in East Asia and Pan-Asia

—Bilateral trade and economic cooperation, bilateral trade and economic relations between China-USA, China-EU, China-Japan, China-Russia, China-India and China-Korea

—Multilateral trade system, multilateral trade regime and China's strategy