China's FDI surges to 4.7 trillion yuan, outpacing previous Five-Year Plan total: official

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China hit 4.7 trillion yuan (about 654.58 billion U.S. dollars) from 2021 to May 2025, exceeding the total during the entire 13th Five-Year Plan period (2016-2020), said Zhou Haibing, vice chairman of China's National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), in Beijing on Wednesday.

Zhou made the statement at the first of a series of press conferences hosted by the State Council Information Office on reviewing the implementation of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-2025).

"From 2021 to May 2025, cumulative FDI in China reached 4.7 trillion yuan, surpassing the total during the 13th Five-Year Plan period. Foreign-funded enterprises have contributed one-third of China's total import and export volume, one-quarter of industrial value-added output, one-seventh of tax revenue, and have created over 30 million jobs," said the official.

During the 14th Five-Year Plan period, China has twice reduced its negative list for foreign investment access. The current national and free trade pilot zone negative lists have been streamlined to 29 and 27 items respectively.

All foreign investment restrictions in the manufacturing sector have been completely removed, while restrictions in agriculture and services sectors have been further relaxed.

Since last year, China has also piloted market opening in sectors such as healthcare and value-added telecommunications, with several foreign enterprises having already commenced investment operations in these areas.

Beyond that, China has conducted multiple revisions to the Catalog of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, with the current edition now containing 1,474 items.

This policy guidance directs foreign capital toward advanced manufacturing, modern services, high-tech industries, energy conservation and environmental protection sectors, as well as in central and western regions and northeast China.

Going forward, China will further ease market access, promote opening-up in relevant sectors, ensure foreign-funded enterprises' equal participation in standard-setting, government procurement, and bidding processes to enhance their sense of fulfillment and satisfaction.

China's FDI surges to 4.7 trillion yuan, outpacing previous Five-Year Plan total: official

China aims to achieve secure and reliable supply of key core artificial intelligence (AI) technologies by 2027, with its industrial scale and empowerment level remaining among the world's forefront, according to a recent government action plan.

The plan, jointly issued by eight departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Cyberspace Administration of China, and the National Development and Reform Commission, outlines an ambitious push to deeply integrate AI with the manufacturing sector, foster new quality productive forces and comprehensively empower new industrialization. By 2027, the plan targets the deep application of three to five general-purpose large AI models in manufacturing, the development of specialized, full-coverage industry-specific large models, the creation of 100 high-quality industrial datasets, and the promotion of 500 typical application scenarios.

It also aims to cultivate two to three globally influential ecosystem-leading enterprises, a batch of specialized and sophisticated small and medium-sized enterprises, and a group of enabling service providers proficient in both AI technology and industry know-how.

Furthermore, China plans to build a world-leading open-source ecosystem, enhance security governance capabilities, and contribute Chinese solutions to global AI development.

The document outlines measures including promoting the coordinated development of AI chips' hardware and software, supporting innovations in model training and inference methods, fostering key industry-specific large models, and deeply embedding large model technology into core production processes.

The plan also emphasizes making breakthroughs in key technologies such as security protection for industrial model algorithms and training data protection.

China aims for secure, reliable supply of AI core tech by 2027