The Ministry of Commerce (Mofcom) must start approving round-trip investments in addition to delegating powers to lower level authorities if it wants to play its part in reversing the country’s recent foreign direct investment (FDI) slump.
That was the message from lawyers following the publication of Circular 9, the latest in a series of Mofcom regulations (see page 63 for a full translation).
In March, Mofcom statistics showed that FDI had dropped for the sixth consecutive month to US$8.4 billion – down 9.5% from a year earlier. While this figure continues to fall, March’s stats were an improvement on the 15.81% drop in February and the 32.67% fall in January (when just 1,496 new foreign-funded enterprises got the nod from authorities).
Alarmed by this sharp decline, Mofcom has issued a series of circulars giving its local branches more power to approve foreign-funded projects....
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