China to further promote trade and investment facilitation

China will further promote trade facilitation and liberalization, create a convenient, transparent and predictable business environment governed by the rule of law for enterprises through free trade zone negotiation and bilateral investment protection treaty negotiation, as well as deepen mutual opening-up of markets between China and its trade partners, Ministry of Commerce spokesman Gao Feng announced at a regular news briefing in Beijing on July 27.

Gao said the ministry will step up effort in building FTZs and advancing investment-protection treaty negotiations, so as to create a stable legal environment at home for enterprises, and support more enterprises to take part in the construction of the Belt and Road.

An investment security review is a country's legal right, and should not become a tool of trade protectionism, Gao said, in commenting on some countries' recent tightening of such reviews.

The Belt and Road Initiative proposed by President Xi Jinping in 2013 has won an active response from more than 100 countries and international organizations, and effectively boosted the orderly and free flow of economic factors among relevant countries, improving the vitality of global growth.

In the next five years, China will import commodities worth more than US$8 trillion, and invest more than US$750 billion abroad, among which commodities worth US$2 trillion will be imported from the countries along the Belt and Road routes, and US$150 billion in new investment will be spent in these countries.

In the Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation in Beijing in May, China and 83 countries jointly proposed the "Initiative on Promoting Unimpeded Trade Cooperation along the Belt and Road", which is to promote trade and investment cooperation and construct a type of open economy in the world, Gao added.