BEIJING: Over the course of 2024, despite rising uncertainties in the global economy, China has been steadfastly pursuing high-quality development and high-standard opening-up and implemented a series of landmark policies.
Notably, the country has granted all least developed countries that have diplomatic relations with China zero-tariff treatment for 100 percent tariff lines, and abolished all market access restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector. Events such as the China International Import Expo (CIIE) and the China International Supply Chain Expo (CISCE) have been pivotal in promoting global collaboration. China has also extended visa-free transit stays to 240 hours with more entry points.
As one piece of evidence marking a significant milestone in the country’s ongoing opening-up efforts, the Perennial General Hospital Tianjin, China’s first wholly foreign-owned, third-grade general hospital, is expected to commence operations very soon, the Global Times learned from the hospital on Friday.
This comes after North China’s Tianjin Municipality issued a license for medical services to the hospital on Monday, which signifies China’s commitment to further opening up its medical sector.
In late November, the country unveiled a plan to allow the establishment of wholly foreign-owned hospitals in major cities including Tianjin, the Xinhua News Agency reported.
The hospital is invested and built by Singapore’s Perennial Holdings Private Limited and has a total investment of around 1 billion yuan ($140 million).
“We highly commend China’s open-door foreign investment policy on healthcare, which is not widely adopted by countries around the world. This forward-looking policy sends a strong, positive signal to the international investment community, boosts confidence for investors keen on China’s healthcare space and drives foreign investments and foreign-local collaborations given the growth prospects of China,” a spokesperson for Perennial Holdings Private Limited, told the Global Times on Friday.
“A series of recent measures clearly demonstrate China’s unwavering commitment to advancing opening-up. They indicate China’s willingness to share development opportunities with countries around the world and achieve mutual benefits and win-win outcomes,” Wang Peng, an associate research fellow at the Beijing Academy of Social Sciences, told the Global Times on Friday.
China’s high-level opening-up has also been reflected through the removal of all market access restrictions for foreign investors in the manufacturing sector, a landmark move made by the world’s second-largest economy as it opens its doors wider.
The new edition of the national negative list for foreign investment took effect on November 1, scrapping the two remaining manufacturing-related items on the previous list. The items on the latest negative list, which specifies fields that are off-limits to foreign investors, have been further slashed to 29, the Xinhua News Agency reported. –The Daily Mail-Global Times news exchange item
