National Development and Reform Commission Launches New Batch of Major Foreign Investment Projects

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Reporter: Du Yumeng

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission announced a new batch of 13 landmark major foreign investment projects with a planned investment of $13.4 billion. The newly selected projects mainly focus on manufacturing, including electronics manufacturing, chemicals, automobiles, electrical machinery, and more, promoting the accelerated development of industrial clusters. At the same time, support for the service sector has been increased, with logistics projects included in the list for the first time, and continued support for R&D centers in biomedicine and other fields, pushing for deep integration of modern services and advanced manufacturing.

The reporter notes that this is the ninth batch of major foreign investment projects launched by China. According to data from the National Development and Reform Commission, as of now, the landmark major foreign investment projects have accumulated a total investment of $108 billion, demonstrating a significant demonstration effect in attracting investment.

“Launching 13 landmark projects amid fierce global competition for investment sends a strong signal that China remains committed to institutional opening and is leveraging the huge market opportunities to attract foreign capital,” said Wu Chaoming, Chief Economist of Caixin Financial Holdings and Vice President of Caixin Research Institute, in an interview with Securities Daily. Compared to previous rounds, the projects now show a new feature of balancing “high-end, sophisticated” and “strong service” elements: manufacturing focuses on key links in electronics, automobiles, and other supply chains, while the service sector includes logistics for the first time and emphasizes biomedicine R&D. This indicates that China’s use of foreign capital has shifted from mere scale expansion to attracting high-tech, high-value-added projects that help elevate the industrial chain to the high end of the global value chain.

The new batch of landmark foreign investment projects includes logistics for the first time, aligning with the 2026 Government Work Report’s emphasis on expanding market access and opening up in the service sector. Currently, as foreign investment restrictions in China’s manufacturing sector have been fully “zeroed out,” expanding market access and opening up in the service sector has become a consensus.

According to the “Catalogue of Industries Encouraged for Foreign Investment (2025 Edition)” (hereinafter referred to as the “Encouragement Catalogue”), which came into effect on February 1, 2026, compared to the previous version, the catalogue further guides foreign investment into modern services: new or expanded entries include business services, technical services, scientific research, and consumer services, promoting high-quality development of the service industry.

Wu Chaoming believes that landmark major foreign investment projects are expected to continue increasing the proportion of high-tech industries and productive services in the annual investment structure. Overall, these $13.4 billion projects will generate “four driving effects”: First, boosting fixed asset investment—directly involving equipment purchases, factory construction, and related capital input, while also stimulating upstream and downstream supporting investments, providing important support for “stabilizing investment”; second, boosting foreign trade exports and imports—foreign-funded enterprises can contribute about one-third of the country’s import and export volume and over half of electromechanical and high-tech product exports, with high-end manufacturing and biomedicine R&D projects strengthening this effect; third, creating jobs—major foreign investment projects not only directly generate employment but also indirectly promote employment through supply chains and service chains, improving workforce skills; fourth, increasing tax revenue—foreign-funded enterprises contribute about one-seventh of national tax revenue, and post-commissioning, these projects will form sustainable sources of tax income.

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