Hunan government has recently issued a statement outlining 25 measures regarding further optimizing the foreign investment environment and intensifying efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital. The measures cover six key areas, namely ensuring the effective utilization of foreign investment, guaranteeing equal treatment of foreign-invested enterprises and domestic enterprises, continuously strengthening the protection of foreign investment, elevating the facilitation of investment and operation, beefing up financial and tax support, and improving the way of promoting foreign investment. In specific:

- Ensuring the effective utilization of foreign investment. Hunan government will support foreign-invested enterprises to establish R&D and innovation centers in Hunan; encourage qualified foreign investors to set up investment companies and regional headquarters in the province; promote the building of international cooperation industrial parks and zones such as the China-Europe (Hunan) International Cooperation Demonstration Zone; and, establish the Hunan Investment Promotion Fund. It will create a database of key foreign investment projects, and establish a mechanism for cities and prefecture provincewide to liaise with their counterparts in key countries, with a focus on major countries and regions like Europe, the United States, Japan, South Korea, BRICS economies, and ASEAN countries.

- Guaranteeing equal treatment of foreign-invested enterprises and domestic enterprises. Hunan government will guarantee the participation of foreign-invested enterprises in government procurement activities in accordance with the law, supporting their equal participation in standardization activities in accordance with the law, and ensuring that they enjoy equal access to supporting policies.

- Continuously strengthening the protection of foreign investment. The province will improve the protection mechanism for the rights and interests of foreign investors; intensify the administrative protection of intellectual property rights; increase the administrative enforcement of intellectual property rights; and, standardize the formulation of foreign-related economic and trade policies.

- Elevating the facilitation of investment and operation. Hunan government will improve the policies on stay of foreign employees of foreign-invested enterprises. It will coordinate and optimize law enforcement inspections involving foreign-invested enterprises, promptly coordinating and resolving their difficulties and problems encountered in projects signing, construction, and operation.

- Beefing up financial and tax support. Hunan will further financial guarantee for foreign investment promotion, and encourage the domestic reinvestment of foreign-invested enterprises. It will implement relevant preferential tax policies for foreign-invested enterprises, and assist them in investing in those areas where China encourages development.

- Improving the way of promoting foreign investment. Hunan will continue to refine its "multinational corporations in Hunan" brand events and improve the hosting of significant economic and trade activities, such as the Hunan Investment Promotion Week in European Countries, Hunan-GBA Investment & Trade Conference Week, Central China Investment and Trade Exposition, Hunan-Taiwan Cooperation Conference on Economy and Trade, among others. The government will strive to support investment groups in expanding globally, by optimizing the approval procedures for state-owned enterprises' personnel going abroad on official business and enhancing the efficiency of the approval process.

This article is from the Hunan Provincial Government www.enghunan.gov.cn.