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Meanwhile, Chinese state councillor and foreign minister Wang Yi told French news service AFP in Paris this week that he is confident of reaching an investment deal with the EU.
Chinese news service Xinhuanet reported that the decision regarding revisions to the regulations on management of foreign-invested insurance and banking firms has been authorised by the State Council and will be implemented immediately on the date of their release.
The revisions are aimed at providing a better legal guarantee to opening up the country’s insurance and banking sectors to overseas investors, and include improving the supervision over foreign banks’ local branches and lifting previous restrictions on company establishment, shareholder status and business expansion, explained the state-owned news agency.
Foreign insurance groups will now be allowed to set up foreign-funded insurance firms on the Chinese mainland, while overseas financial institutions can also be shareholders of foreign-funded insurance firms.
In the banking sector, foreign players can establish branches and wholly foreign-owned banks at the same time on the Chinese mainland, as well as setting up branches and Sino-foreign joint ventures simultaneously.
The country’s securities regulator also recently announced a clear timetable for allowing full foreign ownership of financial service companies covering the fund management, brokerage and futures sectors.
Meanwhile, during the recent lull in the China-US trade spat, the EU and China appear to be making some progress of their own.
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