On 13 August 2023, the State Council released the Opinions to Further Optimize the Environment for Foreign Investment and Increase Efforts to Attract Foreign Investment (hereinafter referred to as the Opinions). The Opinions encompass 24 specific measures in 6 main areas: (i) improving the utilization of foreign capital, (ii) ensuring national treatment received by foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), (iii) strengthening the protection for foreign investment, (iv) improve the ease of conducting investment and operations, (v) enhancing fiscal and tax support, and (vi) optimizing the methods of foreign investment promotion. The specific tasks will be carried out by several ministerial departments of the State Council, such as the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR).

One of the measures outlined by the Opinions is dedicated to standardization, specifically aimed at supporting FIEs to participate in the formulation of standards, in an equal and law-abiding manner. The specific tasks in this regard include:

  • Promotingthe disclosure of information about the whole process of standard formulation and revision;
  • Encouragingforeign-invested enterprises to formulate enterprise standards, independently or jointly with other enterprises, to carry out standardized services;
  • Carryingout national trials for the standardization of the service sector in national comprehensive demonstration zones for the opening up of the service industry.

During a press conference convened to introduce the content of the Opinions, an official from SAMR also mentioned recent release of the Guidelines on Improving the Work of the National Standardization Technical Committees, which are aimed at encouraging FIEs and foreign experts to participate in the development of association standards. Statistically, at present, 62% of national standardization technical committees have members from FIEs.

Furthermore, over the coming months SAMR will continue to promote the construction of a national unified market, thus providing standardized, convenient and unified registration services for all types of business entities, including FIEs. SAMR will also continue to support FIEs to participate in standardization work on an equal basis according to law, while strengthening efforts to tackle unfair competition and carry out intellectual property law enforcement.

However, there are still various issues faced by FIEs when participating in different technical committees, such as unequal membership fees, access to certain technical committees, and participation in China’s international standardization activities. The Opinions only address part of these issues – more concrete measures in this regard will be welcomed by FIEs.