Foreign Direct Investment

Affiliated transactions of insurance FIEs defined.

Government relaxes foreign investment in advertising enterprises.

MOFCOM delegates its FIE approval power to lower level departments.

The Circular states that, with certain exceptions, the investment in and establishment of commercial enterprises by foreign investors shall be subject to the examination of the provincial-level departments in charge of commerce.

Government loosens approval process for foreign-invested advertising enterprises

The revised Provisions delegate some of the approval power concerning the establishment of foreign-invested advertising enterprises to provincial-level government departments.

The Provisions for the Administration of Foreign-invested Advertising Enterprises (the Provisions) were promulgated by the State Administration for Industry and Commerce (SAIC) and took effect on October 1. The Provisions replaced the Regulation of Administration of Foreign Invested Advertising Entities and reflects a liberalisation trend that encourages foreign investment in this specialised business sector. By Richard Wageman, DLA Piper, Beijing.

Land prices in China's tier one cities have risen at a terrific rate over recent years as available construction space has been squeezed. In response to this, local Chinese authorities have sought to extract their share of profits – at the time of granting the land use rights to the preferred developer – usually through some form of bidding process. By Thomas Fairley, Norton Rose

The Ministry of Commerce delegates its power to approve the establishment of foreign-invested companies limited by shares to provincial-level departments in charge of commerce.