China's State Council, the country's cabinet, announced on Thursday further opening-up measures in six trial cities across various areas, including tourism, cultural and telecom industries.
These measures, which come after a series of opening-up policies such as visa-free entry, demonstrate China's commitment to increasing its pace of opening-up and will further boost foreign investment sentiment in the country, experts said.
The six cities are Shenyang in Northeast China's Liaoning Province, Nanjing in East China's Jiangsu Province, Hangzhou in East China's Zhejiang Province, Wuhan in Central China's Hubei Province, Guangzhou in South China's Guangdong Province and Chengdu Southwest China's Sichuan Province.
These pilot cities will implement temporarily adjusted provisions in certain industries, allowing foreign investments to greater access in aged care, travel, telecom, entertainment and live performance businesses.
For example, foreign investment can establish non-profit aged care institutions in Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu.
Foreign investments are also allowed to set up travel agencies in Shenyang, Nanjing, Guangzhou and Chengdu and operate outbound travel business in areas excluding China's Taiwan island.
Local cultural department authorities in Nanjing, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Chengdu will have the authority to approve foreign live performance groups to perform in these cities while in the past it will go through the approval from the central level.
In the telecom sector, Shenyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Guangzhou and Chengdu will open up virtual private network or VPN services for foreign investment through joint ventures.
