Weekly policy snapshot of Chinese economy

China's policymakers have rolled out a raft of measures over the past week to shore up the economy and mitigate the impacts of the COVID-19 epidemic.

The following are the latest policies from the period:

-- China unveiled new shortened negative lists for foreign investment as part of its efforts to further open up the economy and improve its business environment amid the novel coronavirus epidemic.

The number of sectors that are off-limits to foreign investors will be cut to 33 in the 2020 version of the negative list from 40 in the 2019 version.

China also unveiled its 2020 negative list for foreign investment in pilot free trade zones, cutting the number of prohibited industries to 30 from 37.

The two new negative lists will take effect on July 23.

-- China will continue to strengthen measures against money laundering and terrorist financing to solidify the legal foundation for international cooperation in the area, central bank governor Yi Gang has said.

China has been improving the national coordination mechanism of anti-money laundering operations and counter-terrorist financing, and will include related tasks in the agenda of the financial stability and development committee under the State Council, Yi said in a video conference of the Financial Action Task Force.

China has started the process to amend its anti-money laundering law, Yi said.

-- China will further cut the time needed to start a company, and overhaul the fees charged by industry bodies to further reduce the burden on market entities and give them a boost.

China aims to shorten the time needed to set up a company from within five working days currently to within four working days or less, according to a State Council executive meeting chaired by Premier Li Keqiang on Wednesday.

The procedure for starting a business will be optimized. A unified online platform for accessing these services will be established in every provincial region by the end of this year. Once approved, related documents can be collected at one venue.