CCTV News: On January 7, the National Development and Reform Commission held a special press conference to introduce the relevant situation of deepening the construction of a unified national market.

At the meeting, Li Weizheng, deputy director of the Market System Construction Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that as of now, the national negative list for foreign investment access has been reduced to 29 items.

Li Weizheng introduced that the national unified market is not a large market that operates closed and closed, but a large market that is global and fully open. The Ministry of Commerce insists on promoting high-level opening up to the outside world, actively connects with international high-standard economic and trade rules, promotes reform through opening up, promotes efficient connectivity between domestic and international markets, and promotes the construction of a unified national market. Focus on doing four aspects of work:

First, do a good job in the "subtraction" of foreign investment market access. The negative list for foreign investment access has been continuously reduced. As of now, the national negative list for foreign investment access has been reduced to 29 items. In terms of manufacturing, restrictions on foreign investment access have been completely lifted; in terms of service industry, we will promote the orderly expansion of opening up in the fields of telecommunications, the Internet, education, culture, and medical care. In 2024, the national version and the free trade pilot zone version of the negative list of cross-border service trade was released to promote the expansion of opening up in the field of cross-border service trade. In the early stage, the Ministry of Commerce and six other departments revised and issued the "Regulations on the Management of Strategic Investment of Foreign Investors in Listed Companies", further lowering the threshold for foreign investment and encouraging foreign capital to carry out long-term investment and value investment.

The second is to do a good job in "addition" to optimize the business environment. Implement the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises, give full play to the role of a special working group for key foreign-funded projects, improve the work mechanism for foreign-funded enterprises, ensure fair competition between domestic and foreign-funded enterprises, and allow foreign-funded enterprises to enter, retain and develop well. Since 2024, the responsible person of the Ministry of Commerce has presided over 15 roundtable meetings for foreign-invested enterprises and coordinated and resolved more than 370 problems of foreign-invested enterprises. In the work of exchanging consumer goods for new products, the Ministry of Commerce supports foreign-invested enterprises equally. In the car scrapping and update, foreign-invested new cars account for about 35%, driving the rapid growth of sales of foreign-invested car companies. At the same time, many foreigners have also enjoyed the old-for-new subsidy.

The third is to connect with international high-standard economic and trade rules. Implement the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement with high quality, actively promote the process of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement, and continue to expand the global high-standard free trade zone network. For example, in the early stage, my country substantively completed the negotiations with the ASEAN Free Trade Zone 3.0 version and signed a protocol for upgrading the free trade agreement with Peru. By connecting with international high-standard economic and trade rules, we will promote the compatibility of rules, regulations, management, standards, etc. in a larger range of property rights protection, industrial subsidies, environmental standards, government procurement, e-commerce, finance, etc., promote efficient linkage between domestic and international markets, and promote the continuous optimization of the domestic business environment.

The fourth is to accelerate the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade. Promoting the integration of domestic and foreign trade is an important way to smooth the domestic and international dual circulation. The Ministry of Commerce has conscientiously implemented the 18 policy measures of the General Office of the State Council on accelerating the integrated development of domestic and foreign trade, and deepened the pilot program of domestic and foreign trade integration in 9 regions. In response to the difficulties encountered by enterprises in terms of standards, channels, supervision, funds, etc., the Ministry of Commerce has focused on promoting the connection of internal and external systems, the docking of internal and external market channels, the optimization of integrated development environment, and strengthening policy support, implementing the leading action of domestic and foreign trade integration enterprises, building a number of domestic and foreign trade integration development platforms, and continuously improving the level of integrated development of enterprises in domestic and foreign trade. In the first 11 months of 2024, among the large-scale industrial enterprises, the proportion of domestic and foreign trade integrated enterprises reached 16.7%.

Li Weizheng emphasized that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to improve the system and mechanism of high-level opening up in accordance with the decisions and deployments of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, continue to promote market opening, and contribute to the construction of a unified national market.