China to attract more foreign investment into economic, technological development zones

China's Ministry of Commerce (MOC) will take various measures to attract foreign investment into the country's state-level economic and technological development zones, an official with the MOC said Wednesday.

Efforts will be made to bring in foreign-invested companies in the advanced manufacturing and modern service industries, while multinationals will be encouraged to set up headquarters or R&D centers in the development zones, said Tang Wenhong, head of the MOC's department of foreign investment administration.

"There is still a lot of potential for the development zones to attract more foreign capital," Tang said at a press conference.

The State Council has recently made public guidelines on promoting innovation the development zones, vowing efforts to encourage technological and institutional innovation in the areas.

The guidelines listed 22 tasks, including increasing the quality of foreign trade and advancing the innovation capabilities of various industries.

At present, there are 219 state-level economic and technological development zones in China, contributing more than 10 percent to the national gross domestic product and fiscal revenue.

In 2018, combined foreign trade volume in the zones rose by 10.8 percent year on year, accounting for 20.3 percent of China's total foreign trade.