NDRC: China likely to ease or eliminate ownership restrictions on Sino-foreign JVs

China needs to ease or eliminate ownership restrictions on Sino-foreign JVs, promote fair competitions between foreign and Chinese companies, and attract more foreign companies to invest in China more extensively, according to Ning Jizhe, deputy director of National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC). He also revealed at a press conference on Mar. 6 that China should relax the threshold of market access widely and also amend the negative lists of foreign investments further.

During the past 40 years, foreign companies have played a crucial role in Chinese economy. In addition, China had also achieved remarkable results in attracting foreign investments. In 2017, China had attracted direct investments of $131 billion from foreign investors, ranking second worldwide. Foreign-capital companies took up nearly 50% of the total importing and exporting amounts, and contributed nearly 25% in China's value of industrial output, around 20% in tax and more than 10% in employment for China. In return, China's fast economic growth provides a good environment for foreign companies.

Rumors on China's desire of loosening ownership restrictions on foreign automakers' joint ventures even released as early as in 2014. Last year, rumors revealed that Tesla had signed an agreement with Shanghai government to establish a fully owned company in Shanghai free trade zone.