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The 11th Five-year Plan on Foreign Capital Utilization
The State Development and Reform Commission
November 10, 2006
Preamble
The 11th Five-year Plan on Foreign Capital Utilizationwhich is an important part of the 11th Five-year Plan of China’s national
economic and social development, based on making a summary of the overall situation of the 10th Five-year Plan on Foreign Capital
Utilization and analyzing the domestic and foreign environments that the 11th Five-year Plan faces, puts forward the guiding ideology,
strategic objective, key tasks, corresponding policy measures for foreign capital utilization in China for the 11th Five-year Plan,
and is an important guideline of the foreign capital utilization work of China during the 11th Five-year Plan.
During the 11th Five-year Plan, we shall, for the sake of the work of the foreign capital utilization, comprehensively implement the
scientific view of development, further propel the fundamental conversion of the foreign capital utilization from “being quantity
oriented” to “being quality oriented”, practically transfer the emphasis of foreign capital utilization from making up the shortage
of funds and foreign exchanges to introducing advanced technologies, management experiences and high-quality talents, focus more
on ecological construction, environmental protection, conservation and comprehensive utilization of resources and energies, and effectively
combine the foreign capital utilization with the upgrading of domestic industrial structure and technological level.
In accordance with the plan consented to by the State Council on formulating special planning, and based on widely soliciting opinions
from 40 related ministries, commissions and directly subordinate institutions under the jurisdiction of the State Council containing
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Commerce, the People’s Bank of China, 11 industrial associations,
the local departments of development and reform as well as some research institutions, enterprises, experts and scholars, this Plan
is formulated by the State Development and Reform Commission.
Contents
1. Basic Information on Foreign Capital Utilization of China during the 10th Five-year Plan
2. Guiding Ideology and Overall Strategic Objective of Foreign Capital Utilization of China during the 11th Five-year Plan
3. Major Tasks of Foreign Capital Utilization of China during the 11th Five-year Plan
(1) Guiding the industrial structure optimization and upgrading of foreign investments
(2) Promoting the construction of a resource-conservative and environment-friendly society
(3) Propelling the opening up of service industries to the outside world actively and prudently
(4) Promoting the construction of an opener independent system of innovation
(5) Promoting harmonious development of the regional economies
(6) Realizing diversification of the methods of foreign capital utilization
(7) Improving the quality and returns of the utilization of foreign loans
(8) Strengthening the macro-monitoring and full-aperture administration of foreign debts
4. China’s Policy Measures for Foreign Capital Utilization during the 11th Five-year Plan
(1) Constructing a fairer and sounder foreign investmentenvironment
(2) Intensifying the policy guidance to foreign investment industries and to the contribution thereof to selected regions
(3) Intensifying the implementation of resource conservation and environmental protection
(4) Guiding various forms of technical cooperation and united innovations of domestic and foreign funds
(5) Further strengthening the foreign loan borrowing administration
(6) Improving the level of the monitoring, control and management of the foreign debt risks
(7) Maintaining state economic security and public interests
(8) Actively taking part in formulating and coordinating international economic rules
The 11th Five-year Plan is a significant when the economic and social development of China serves as a link between the past and future.
With the domestic and foreign environmental changes that China faces as well as the wider opening up to the outside world, the main
purposes of the foreign capital utilization will be changed, and the philosophy, means, key industries, regional structure, etc.
of the foreign capital utilization will also change greatly. To actively and effectively utilize foreign capital, and to practically
transfer the emphasis to the introduction of foreign advanced technologies, management experiences and high-quality talents, are
the key points for improving the quality of foreign capital utilization during the 11th Five-year Plan .
1.
Basic Information on Foreign Capital Utilization of China during the 10th Five-year Plan
During the 10th Five-year Plan, marked by the entry into WTO, the opening up to the outside world of China has entered a completely
new stage of fully taking part in international economic cooperation and competition, and the foreign capital utilization has also
walked onto a new step. During the 10th Five-year Plan, a total of approximately USD 383 billion foreign capital was actually utilized
in China , of which approximately USD 286 billion was foreign direct investments, approximately USD 38 billion was raised by issuing
stocks overseas, and approximately USD 46 billion was foreign loans. The amount has far exceeded the actually completed amount during
the of the 9th Five-year Plan. The main features are as follows:
(1)
The scale of foreign investments has been extended, and the investment methods have been more diversified. In terms of foreign direct
investments, during the 10th Five-year Plan, the utilization of foreign direct investments has increased by 34% over that during
the 9th Five-year Plan. China has become one of the major destination countries of international capital and transnational companies’
investments. In respect of other foreign investments mainly through raising funds of overseas stocks, great progress has been made.
By the end of 2005, 122 companies from the Mainland have been listed in Hong Kong and other stock exchanges overseas, and a total
of USD 55,544 million funds have been raised (excluding red chip enterprises). A total of 34 overseas institutions are admitted as
qualified foreign institutional investors (QFII).
(2)
We have made prominent achievements in undertaking a new round of international manufacturing industry transfer. During the 10th Five-year
Plan, China grasped the opportunities of structural adjustment and transfer of global manufacturing industry successfully, brought
in large amounts of foreign direct investments in the manufacturing industry, and thus has become one of the important bases of production
in the world preliminarily. The foreign investments that were absorbed in fund-intensive and technology-intensive industries obviously
increased, and many large foreign-invested projects that had been prepared for years were carried out during the 10th Five-year Plan.
Foreign-invested enterprises played good exemplary roles in respect of technology, management and the philosophy of business operation,
etc., propelled the market forces and internalization of China’s economy and enterprises, promoted the formulation of a group of
fresh industries with international competitiveness including electronic information, integrate circuit, light industry, textiles,
household electrical appliances, common mechanical and electrical products, and so on..
(3)
With the entirely implementation of the promises for China’s entry into WTO in the service industry, apparent progress has been made
in the opening up to the outside world. By the end of 2005, a total of 71 foreign banks from 20 countries and regions have set up
238 business operative institutions in China. More than ten Chinese-invested commercial banks containing China Construction Bank,
Bank of China, Industrial and Commercial Bank of China brought in overseas strategic investments, and at the same time China Construction
Bank and Bank of Communications were successfully listed overseas. A total of 4 joint venture securities companies and 20 joint venture
fund management companies were set up upon approval. On the basis of the promises for entry into WTO, the insurance industry has
been opened to foreign-invested insurance companies in all regions and in all businesses except related statutory insurances. By
the end of 2005, the number of foreign-invested insurance companies has increased to 40 companies and 93 head companies and branches.
Foreign-invested enterprises have become an important part in the fields of logistics and commerce. In 2005, the foreign capital
utilized in the service industry of China exceeded one fifth of the total amount of foreign investments in the year.
(4)
Foreign loans increased steadily, which supported the construction of state key projects effectively. During the 10th Five-year Plan,
the foreign preferential loans actually utilized throughout China totaled approximately USD 20.7 billion, which supported 150 key
projects, including the reinforcing projects of the main dykes of the Changjiang River and the Yellow River, trunk line highways
in Sichuan and other provinces, several trunk line railways from Hubei province to Chongqing, the coal-bed gas project in Shanxi
province, pollution treatment along the basins of Huaihe River, the projects of the agricultural comprehensive development in the
Central and Western Regions, etc. Emphasis was laid on the Central and Western Regions, which gained more than 70% of preferential
loans when the foreign preferential loans being arranged. The financing channels and ways of international commercial loans took
a feature of diversification. During the10th Five-year Plan, approximately USD 25.8 billion of international commercial loans (except
loans granted by foreign-invested enterprises) have been borrowed in China, which mainly supported some urgently-needed projects
on energy source and traffic in national economic development as well as partial industrial projects with short construction, good
economic returns and ability to generate foreign exchange earnings through export, for example, the hydro-power station of the Three
Gorges, Lingao Nuclear Power Station in Guangdong, Tianwan Nuclear Power Station, Qinshan Nuclear Power Station, etc., the purchase
of airplanes by airline companies, and so on, helped introduce some important advanced technical equipment and key equipment which
could not be manufactured in China, relieved the situation on unsuitable structure of sources of foreign exchange funds of domestic
financial institutions, and enhanced the domestic institutions’ ability to optimally allocate funds .
(5)
Capacities of managing foreign debts have been further enhanced, and the foreign debt scale is in step with the level of the national
economic development and the situation of the international balance of payment. With regard to the tendencies which foreign debts
of China took on in recent years, namely, the flow increased by times, the total scale grew rapidly, and short-term foreign debts
took up a large proportion, the administrative department of foreign debts successively promulgated related provisions, effectively
controlled the growth of foreign debts and adjusted the structure of foreign debts in a timely manner, so as to keep the debt service
ratio, liability ratio, and debt-to-GDP ratio of China’s foreign debts within the safe lines that are accredited internationally.
(6)
The regulations and policies on foreign capital utilization have been improved constantly, and the management level has been advanced
gradually. On the basis of the requirements for the development of socialist market economy and China’s promises for entry into WTO,
the related laws and regulations on foreign capital utilization as well as the rules and regulatory documents of all departments
and localities have been completely cleaned up and amended. We have amended the Catalogue for the Guidance of Foreign Investment
Industries twice, have amended the Catalogue of Priority Industries for Foreign Investment in the Central and Western Regions, and
have promulgated the Implementation Opinions on the Promotion of the Old Industrial Base in Northeast China to widely Open up to
the Outside World . According to the spirit of the investment system reform of the State Council, the auxiliary reform of the management
system of the foreign capital utilization was conducted, the approval procedures for foreign loan projects have been regularized,
the approval system for foreign-invested projects has been changed into ratification system, the examination steps have been reduced,
and the work efficiency has been improved.
However, during the 10th Five-year Plan, there were still some problems on China’s foreign capital utilization worth paying attention
to: Firstly, the problem of “stressing quantity but ignoring quality”, which has existed in absorbing foreign capital for long, is
still prominent. Some local governments and departments absorbed foreign capital blindly without caring costs and pursued the quantity
of foreign capital unilaterally, and the phenomenon that the state industrial policies were broken occurred frequently. Secondly,
the leading enterprises in some industries were acquired and merged with foreign investments more and more frequently, and in a few
areas, the symptom of foreign investment monopoly arose or even expanded rapidly, which might threaten the state economic security,
particularly industrial security. Thirdly, the overall absorption scale and level of foreign direct investments in the Central and
Western Regions were comparatively low, and the gap from the foreign direct investments utilization in the Eastern Regions has been
further widened. Fourthly, the technology spillover of foreign-invested enterprises was not prominent, and some foreign-invested
enterprise abused intellectual property protection, which did not favor the domestic enterprises’ independent innovations. Fifthly,
the existing administration system of foreign capital utilization urgently needs to be improved, and a part of presently applicable
policies are not favor creating an environment for fair competition between domestic enterprises and foreign-invested enterprises.
Sixthly, a small number of projects of foreign loan utilization were not strictly administered, the fund utilization efficiency was
low, and the debt repayment was difficult. Seventhly, the proportion of foreign debts with short term increased rapidly, and the
potential risks of foreign debt also increased.
2.
Guiding Ideology and Overall Strategic Objective of Foreign Capital Utilization of China during the 11th Five-year Plan Period
During the 11th Five-year Plan, the overall domestic and foreign environments in respect of foreign capital utilization that China
faces still tend to be good, and have created conditions for China to improve the quality and level of foreign capital utilization,
and to continue keeping the foreign capital utilization in a large scale, as well. The 11th Five-year Plan is, at the same time,
also a period when the external environmental restrictions and internal risks of the economic development of China are centralized.
For one thing, uncertain factors for the world economic growth still exist has, the global economic development is unbalanced, the
international financial market is still likely to suffer from violent turbulence, the trade protectionism tendency is obvious, and
the dispute between all countries for international capital becomes increasingly severe. For another, some prominent problems still
exist there, for example, China’s energy sources and mineral resources are relatively insufficient, the ecological environment is
frail, the mode of the economic growth is changed slowly, and the comparative advantages of labor force cost have been weakened.
After making a summary of the domestic and foreign situations, it can be preliminarily concluded that, during the11th Five-year Plan,
the foreign capital utilization of China will have the following new changes: in respect of regional structure, with the rising of
the cost of production factors in the Eastern Regions, the Central and Western Regions will face very good opportunities in utilizing
foreign capital, and the smooth going of echelon transfer of foreign investments will become an important task of the Central and
Western Regions in utilizing foreign capital. In respect of industrial structure, the 11th Five-year Plan will be an important period
when China’s service industry is reformed and developed and the service industry, particularly modern service industry, becomes an
industry to which foreign investments will speed up to enter. In respect of investment scale, the cost of foreign investments will
be increased, and the speed of increase of foreign investments during the 11th Five-year Plan will be heavily influenced due to the
tendency of saturation of investments in domestic traditional manufacturing industries, the rise of the cost of domestic factors,
and the restrictions on energies and resources.. In respect of the foreign capital utilization methods, the credit standing of the
state and that of enterprises will be improved constantly, the reforms of formation mechanism of Renminbi exchange rate and of other
related systems will be propelled constantly, and the foreign exchange reserves with a large scale and the increasing development
of domestic investment banking industry have created conditions for China to utilize foreign capital and to reduce financial risks
in multiple ways. The layout of domestic traditional industries has been completed basically, and both the building up of new investment
projects and the merger and acquisition of enterprises will become important modes of foreign direct investments.
During the 11th Five-year Plan, the guiding ideology of foreign capital utilization of China shall be: To take Deng Xiaoping Theory
and the important thoughts of “Three Represents” as the guide, to comprehensively carry out the scientific view of development, and
to actively and effectively utilize foreign capital; to make an overall plan for domestic development and the opening up to the outside
world, to properly deal with the relationship between the foreign capital utilization and the balance of international payments,
that between utilizing foreign capital and making the best use of domestic funds, to promote adjusting and optimizing the structure
of domestic industry and regional economy, as well as to conscientiously improve the quality of foreign capital utilization; to propel
the construction of an opener independent innovation system, to intensify the integrated innovation ability and the re-innovation
ability to import, digest and absorb; to, in the process of further opening to the outside world, actively defend and eliminate various
risks, and to conscientiously guarantee the state economic security; to further reinforce, exert and create the comparative advantages
of China, to carry out the opening strategy for mutual benefit and common wins, and to actively take part in international economic
and technological cooperation and competition within a larger scope, in wider areas and at a higher level.
During the 11th Five-year Plan, the overall strategic objective of foreign capital utilization of China shall be: To further propel
the fundamental conversion of foreign capital utilization from “being quantity oriented” to “being quality oriented”, to conscientiously
transfer the emphasis of the foreign capital utilization from making up the shortage of funds and foreign exchanges to introducing
advanced technologies, management experiences and high-quality talents, and to focus more on ecological construction, environmental
protection, conservation and comprehensive utilization of resources and energies. By way of introducing foreign advanced technologies
and management experiences, we shall exert the functions of leading and eradiating of foreign-funded enterprises to domestic enterprises,
promote the improvement of the integrated innovation ability and the re-innovation ability to import, digest and absorb of China;
we shall strive for the further extension of foreign investments from the simple processing, assembly, and the production and manufacturing
at a low level to research, development, high-end design, modern circulation and other new areas, propel China to become one of the
manufacturing bases of high value-added products in the world; we shall greatly improve the level of opening up to the outside world
in the service industry; we shall markedly improve the scale, quality and level of foreign capital utilization in the old industrial
bases in the Central and Western Regions and those in Northeastern Regions, further intensify the Eastern Regions’ economic globalization
extent and international competitiveness; we shall utilize foreign preferential loans actively, reasonably and effectively, focus
more on their quality and returns; we shall strengthen the control of the structure and purposes of foreign debts, strictly prevent
the risks of foreign debt; the total scale of foreign capital shall grow steadily on the basis of the 10th Five-year Plan; up to
2010, the system of foreign capital utilization management shall be more reasonable and effective, and the foreign capital utilization
shall be more harmonious with domestic economic and social development.
3.
Major Tasks of Foreign Capital Utilization of China during the 11th Five-year Plan
(1)
Guiding the industrial structural optimization and upgrading of foreign investments
Foreign investors shall be encouraged to invest in and develop modern agriculture, to concentrate on developing ecological agriculture
and the planting and breeding industries with high technology content and high added value, to concentrate on comprehensively utilizing
agricultural wastes, developing biological mass energy, developing and manufacturing modern agricultural mechanical equipment, and
deeply processing of agricultural products, as well as to introduce modernized agricultural technologies and management modes.
We shall encourage foreign investors to continue the investment in electronic information industry, petro-chemical industry, chemical
industry, and automobile industry, and so on. They shall, on the basis of requirements for China’s industrial upgrading of the heavy
chemical industry, appropriately increase foreign investment projects including the large petro-chemical industry and chemical industry,
and so on. We shall particularly encourage the projects in which self-balance of resources can be realized, and foreign advanced
technologies shall be introduced by ways of joint venture cooperating and other ways. The automobile manufacturing industry shall,
when continues doing a good job in upgrading the joint venture enterprises’ products and improving the joint venture enterprises’
market competitiveness encourage foreign capital to be mostly contributed to automobile design, the building up of research and development
centers, and shall continue encouraging foreign capital to be contributed to develop the manufacturing of professional automobile
parts and components with high technology content.
We shall encourage foreign capital to continue to be used in reorganization and reform in mechanical industry, light industry, industries
concerning textiles, raw materials, construction and building materials, and other traditional industries, as well as be contributed
to improve enterprises’ technical level and product class, and to enhance enterprises’ international competitiveness. We shall reform
domestic traditional industries by ways of introducing advanced applicable technologies, equipment and management experiences, bring
in foreign investments to develop labor-intensive industries with comparative advantages of China and export processing industry,
and to promote the development of the medium and small enterprises featured as “professional, specialized, unique, new and excellent”.
Foreign capital shall be led to be used in the energy source area so as to accelerate exploring, exploiting, utilizing domestic petroleum
and natural gas as well as building up the transporting pipelines, and the development of redeemable energies shall be sped up.
We shall continue encouraging foreign capital to invest in the building up of infrastructures. Foreign investments shall be actively
utilized to speed up the construction of the traffic projects such as highways, ports and railways, as well as the urban infrastructures
such as track traffic, water supply, gas supply, heat supply, sewage and garbage treatment, and so on, and particularly be encouraged
to be invested in urban infrastructure construction in the old industrial bases in the Central and Western Regions and those in Northeastern
Regions, and in the development of the succeeding industries in resource-exhausted cities.
(2)
Promoting the construction of a resource-conservative and environment-friendly society
We shall intensify the policy guidance of resource conservation and environmental protection to the foreign capital utilization, and
strictly restrict foreign-invested projects at a low level, with high consumption and high pollution; we shall encourage the conservation
of water, land and materials in foreign capital utilization, strengthen comprehensive utilization of resources, and encourage the
introduction t of advanced applicable process, technology and equipment which may effectively conserve energy and reduce consumption
through foreign capital utilization.
We shall actively propel the foreign capital utilization in areas of environmental protection, and propel the carrying out of key
projects of environmental protection engineering. We shall intensify comprehensive prevention and control of pollution caused by
foreign-invested enterprises such as water pollution, air pollution and solid waste pollution, and so on, and effectively control
the pollutant discharge. Foreign investors shall be encouraged to invest in recycling and utilizing waste metal, worn tires, waste
electronic products and other industrial wastes as well as utilizing household garbage and sludge as resources. We shall speed up
the development of the building up of ecological environments in the Central and Western Regions, and encourage foreign investors
to invest in biological mass-energy conversion projects and clean energy projects.
(3)
Propelling the opening up of service industries to the outside world actively and steadily
The opening up of the banking industry to the outside world shall be in line with the principles of progressing in order, supervising
prudentially and controlling risks. We shall keep a reasonable structure and layout of both Chinese-invested banks and foreign-invested
banks within the territory of China. We shall, on the premise that the Chinese party controls the shares, allow domestic commercial
banks to bring in foreign strategic investors. We shall actively support the establishment of strategic partnerships such as stock
right cooperation, etc. between foreign-invested banks and Chinese-invested banks, and shall improve the corporate governance structure.
We shall encourage both Chinese-invested and foreign-invested banks to cooperate in terms of financial products, work skills, information
exchange, resource sharing and trainings, etc., introduce advanced business operation philosophy, operational modes and senior management
talents of the modern banking industry, and to promote the conversion of domestic commercial banks’ mechanism.
The insurance industry shall carefully fulfill the China’s promises on entry into WTO, lay emphasis on bringing in overseas insurance
companies and other financial institutions which are specialized in the areas such as pension, medical treatment, liability and agricultural
insurance, and so on, and we shall encourage foreign-invested insurance companies to conduct business by setting up business institutions
in the Central and Western Regions and in Northeastern Regions. We shall, on the premise that the Chinese party controls the shares,
allow State-owned insurance companies to bring in foreign strategic investors, and allow qualified domestic joint stock insurance
companies to bring in foreign investments. They shall, through foreign capital utilization, speed up the introduction of foreign
advanced insurance products, operational modes and senior management talents, so as to enhance insurance industries’ competitiveness
of China.
We shall propel the opening up to the outside world of the securities industry in an orderly way and step by step, and shall continue
bringing in foreign investors, promote securities business institutions to improve their corporate governance structure, to strengthen
their internal risk control and management, and to enhance their management level on the basis of the principle of prudentially supervising;
as well as to speed up the industrial integration, product and service innovation. We shall allow listed enterprises to bring in
strategic investments from overseas strategic investors after finishing the share-trading reform.
The telecommunication industry shall be steadily and orderly opened to foreign investors. It shall be done strictly according to China’s
promises for entry into WTO. Foreign investors shall be allowed to run domestic telecommunication business within the statutory scope
through joint venture, the proportion of foreign investments in the market of the value-added telecommunication service may be enlarged,
and the opening up of the basic service market shall be propelled prudentially. The policy system on the opening up to the outside
world of the telecommunication industry shall be improved.
The commercial sector shall lay emphasis on the improvement of the foreign investment absorption level. It shall, by aiming at the
introduction of business operation philosophy in modern commerce, foreign advanced distribution methods, marketing network and service
means as the objective, keep a proper increase of the number of foreign-invested commercial retail enterprises, and develop foreign-invested
commercial wholesale enterprises, large chain stores and distribution centers in an orderly way. Large domestic commercial enterprises
shall be supported to optimize the structure by bringing in foreign capital, and to improve the management level, as well. We shall
closely focus on the affects of foreign investments to the commercial development of China, conscientiously do well in supervision
over anti-trust and fair trading, and keep the Chinese-invested and foreign-invested commercial enterprises’ reasonable layout, market
shares and structure in large and medium cities.
Large foreign logistics enterprises shall be encouraged to set up logistics enterprises in China in light of related provisions of
the laws and regulations of China, and shall be encouraged to utilize foreign funds, equipment and technologies, and to take part
in constructing and operating domestic logistics facilities.
We shall actively propel the foreign capital utilization in the tourism industry. We shall utilize foreign capital to improve tourism
facilities, to protect and develop tourism resources, to attract overseas tourists, and to improve the management. We shall encourage
the wider opening up to the outside world in the industries of transport, construction, legal service, accounting service, consulting,
etc. through Chinese-foreign joint venture, Chinese-foreign cooperation, and so on. Foreign investments shall be actively and steadily
promoted to contribute to the cultural area, including distribution of audio and video products, operation and brokerage of performance
places and cultural products, etc. State cultural security shall be maintained, too.
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