Ministry of Commerce: Will continue to deepen the reform of the system and mechanism to promote foreign investment, and help more foreign-funded projects land in China.

On March 26th, the Ministry of Commerce held a routine press conference. The Ministry of Commerce spokesperson stated that they will work together with relevant localities and departments to thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, steadfastly expand high-level opening to the outside world, deepen the reform of the system and mechanisms for promoting foreign investment, implement well the support policies such as encouraging foreign investment industry catalog, reinvestment tax relief, and foreign-funded research and development centers, strengthen the service guarantee for investment projects of multinational corporations in China, continuously update the list of key foreign investment projects, provide strong support in areas such as cross-border data flows, research and development innovation, and talent introduction, and help more foreign investment projects take root and flourish. The spokesperson mentioned that this year is the beginning year of the "14th Five-Year Plan". Recently, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully held, reviewing and approving the outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan". The implementation of the outline will lay a solid foundation for China to basically achieve socialist modernization, and provide huge new opportunities for multinational companies to develop in China. Source: Ministry of Commerce holds a routine press conference on March 26, 2026 [He Yongqian]: Dear journalists friends, Good afternoon everyone, welcome to the routine press conference of the Ministry of Commerce. Today I have no information to report to all of you. I am willing to answer questions from journalists friends. Please go ahead and ask questions. [Cover News Reporter]: Recently, data shows that in the first 2 months, the total value of China's goods trade import and export was 7.73 trillion yuan, an increase of 18.3% year-on-year. How does the Ministry of Commerce view the "good start" of import and export this year? How to promote balanced development of trade optimization in response to concerns about the continuous increase in trade surplus with China from trading partners? [He Yongqian]: Thank you for your question. In the first two months of this year, China's foreign trade maintained a fast growth momentum, with some key products performing better than expected, especially in the import and export of mechanical and electrical products, which are closely related to the strong resilience and innovative vitality of China's foreign trade. Overall, despite the ongoing impact of geopolitical conflicts, with the continuous release of China's economic vitality, this stable and positive trend is expected to continue. Regarding the "promotion of balanced development of trade optimization," I want to emphasize that China is resolutely promoting high-level opening to the outside world, willing to work with trading partners to jointly expand the global economic and trade pie. In terms of expanding imports, China is the world's second-largest economy and the second-largest import market. With the continuous upgrading of industries and the improvement of residents' living standards, new market demand is continuously being released, and there is huge import potential. The Ministry of Commerce will play an important role as a platform, organize important exhibitions such as the China International Import Expo, expand the influence of the "Export to China" brand, strengthen precise matchmaking, leverage the advantages of all parties, import more high-quality foreign goods, technologies, and services, and share China's huge market opportunities with countries around the world. Thank you. [China Securities Journal Reporter]: Recently, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, issued the "Policy Measures for Promoting Travel Service Export and Expanding Inbound Consumption" to introduce the relevant situation of travel services? How to better optimize the inbound consumption environment and improve the level of whole-process facilitation? [He Yongqian]: Travel services, which include individual travel such as tourism, study, medical treatment, as well as various business trips, are the largest sector of China's service trade, accounting for more than a quarter of the import and export scale of service trade. In recent years, China has continuously introduced a series of measures such as standardization of services, facilitation of visas, and internationalization of payments to optimize the international consumption environment, enhance the attractiveness of inbound consumption, and "China Travel" has become a new trend for overseas tourists. In 2025, the export scale of travel services reached 393.98 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 49.5%, becoming the fastest-growing sector of service exports, but the export scale is still smaller than the import. To further stimulate the potential of inbound consumption, promote the creation of a globally attractive inbound consumption destination, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, issued the "Policy Measures for Promoting Travel Service Export and Expanding Inbound Consumption", proposing 16 policy measures in 7 aspects. The "Policy Measures" focus on various inbound scenarios such as tourism shopping, business exhibitions, watching sports and performances, health consumption, and education and training, encourage localities to provide element guarantees for inbound consumption infrastructure based on the actual situation, increase the supply of high-quality services, create national tourism brands, strengthen global precision marketing, continuously improve visa policies, remove bottlenecks in "accommodation, catering, transportation, tourism, and shopping" after entry, further improve the convenience level of various links such as payment, tax refund, communication, sightseeing, and ticket purchase, allowing more international travelers to "want to come to China," "be able to come to China," and "wish to come back to China." Next, we will work with various departments and localities to quickly implement these policy measures, better optimize the inbound consumption environment, expand service exports, and explore new space for service consumption. Thank you. [Southern Metropolis Daily Reporter]: We have noticed that many executives from multinational companies have recently come to China to negotiate investment cooperation projects, and they have all expressed great optimism about the huge market opportunities in China. What considerations and measures does the Ministry of Commerce have in attracting foreign investment next? [He Yongqian]: Recently, many global leaders of multinational companies such as Apple, Eli Lilly, BASF, Volkswagen, Bosch, and ALFUTAIM Group, as well as representatives of the US-China Business Council and other business associations, have visited China intensively, many of them have visited the Ministry of Commerce and engaged in candid and practical communication with us, all highly recognizing the strong resilience and innovative vitality of the Chinese economy, the huge market advantages of the super-large scale, and the continuously optimized business environment in China. China has become the preferred strategic development base for the global development of multinational companies, and many multinational companies investing in China have upgraded from "optional items" for resource allocation to "essential items" for strategic development. This morning, BASF's largest single investment project globally, the BASF (Guangdong) integrated base project, was officially put into operation. Recently, many multinational companies have announced plans to further expand their investment in China, such as Eli Lilly planning to invest $3 billion in the expansion of production in China in the next ten years, Novozymes announced the expansion of its production base in Guangzhou, Schneider Electric announced the construction of two new factories in Xiamen and Wuxi and the upgrade of the Beijing research and development center. These multinational companies have demonstrated their willingness and confidence in long-term deepening their presence in China through practical actions. This year is the opening year of the "14th Five-Year Plan". Recently, the National People's Congress and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference were successfully held, reviewing and approving the outline of the "14th Five-Year Plan". The implementation of the outline will lay a solid foundation for China to basically achieve socialist modernization and provide huge new market opportunities for multinational companies in China. We will work together with relevant localities and departments to thoroughly implement the decisions and arrangements of the Party Central Committee, steadfastly expand high-level opening to the outside world, deepen the reform of the system and mechanisms for promoting foreign investment, implement well the support policies such as encouraging foreign investment industrial catalog, reinvestment tax relief, and foreign-funded research and development centers, strengthen the service guarantee for investment projects of multinational companies in China, continuously update the list of key foreign investment projects, provide strong support in areas such as cross-border data flows, research and development innovation, and talent introduction, and help more foreign investment projects take root and flourish. Thank you. [Japanese Jiji Press Reporter]: This year, Japanese companies were not invited to participate in the China Development High-Level Forum, and it is said that Japanese companies are facing more difficulties in doing business in China. Does China still intend to promote economic ties with Japanese companies? [He Yongqian]: China adheres to high-level opening to the outside world and is committed to creating a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and international first-class business environment. The latest survey of the China-Japan Chamber of Commerce shows that the overall operation of Japanese companies in China is generally good, with a high satisfaction with the business environment in China, and they will continue to deepen their market in China. A stable and healthy Sino-Japanese economic and trade relation... (Note: The translation is too long for a single response, please let me know if you would like me to continue with the translation.)