According to Article 9, the business registration system for foreign capital will be simplified. Instead of getting approval for capital investment, foreign companies will now be registered, and could get their business licenses, organization codes and tax registrations in just four days. This move will make the legal procedure for foreign investment companies more convenient.

The plenum document has widened foreign capital's investment areas and expanded foreign companies' commercial space in the country. Article 24 of the document says that service sectors such as finance, education, culture and medical care will enjoy an orderly opening-up; restrictions will be eased on sectors such as nursery and pension, architecture design, accounting and auditing, trade and logistics, and e-commerce's foreign investment; and general manufacturing industries will be further opened up. This is further opening up of industries to foreign capital.

Article 26 says that border areas, too, will be further opened up. Special methods and policies will be implemented in key border cities, ports and economic cooperation zones to encourage personnel exchange, logistics and tourism. Development finance institutions will be established to accelerate infrastructure development among neighboring countries and regions in order to form an all-round new opening-up pattern, which would largely make foreign capital more welcome to the regions.

Negotiations on emerging issues such as environmental protection, investment protection, government procurement and e-commerce will be accelerated to form a world class network of free trade zones (FTZs). Except for the pilot FTZ in Shanghai, those proposed in Qingdao, Shenzhen, Tianjin, Chongqing and Zhuhai are yet to be built. The construction of these FTZs will provide more standard and favorable, and wider business space for foreign capital.

The plenum document also has provisions for standardizing the market order and protecting property rights. It aims to establish a uniform but open and orderly competitive market system to eliminate trade barriers and make resource allocation fairer and more efficient. This will improve China's market order and make its business environment more transparent.

Article 9 also says China will reform the market supervision system and implement unified market supervision. The government will crack down on local protectionism, monopoly and unfair competition, and will establish and perfect a social credit rating system, market withdrawal mechanism and bankruptcy system. These measures will remove market barriers and regulate the management of governments at all levels.

According to Article 5, property rights of the public economy are inviolable, so are those of the non-public economy. China protects all kinds of property rights and legitimate benefits, and ensures that all kinds of ownership economies have equal access to production factors, enjoy open and fair market competition and unified legal protection and supervision. China will also remove foreign capital's misgivings, and guarantee foreign capital's equal rights in the domestic market.

All these are favorable reforms for foreign capital thanks to the Third Plenary Session of the 18th CPC Central Committee's decision to give foreign investment a better playing field in China.

The author is a professor at the School of International Trade and Economics, University of International Business and Economics, Beijing.

(China Daily 12/03/2013 page9)