China will relax restrictions on foreign enterprises investing in its fledgling free trade zones (FTZs) in a bid to attract more overseas capital, the country's cabinet said on Tuesday.
The government will temporarily replace an unwieldly approval mechanism with a registration system that will allow the establishment of foreign firms or joint ventures in the FTZs and facilitate major mergers and acquisitions involving foreign companies, the cabinet said in a statement on its website (www.gov.cn).
"The move is another step in China's reforms to open up its domestic market and to support free trade zone development," said Liao Qun, China chief economist at Citic Bank International in Hong Kong.
