China has proposed lifting some restrictions on foreign investment in the country, including in sectors such as ecommerce, batteries, rail freight and chemicals, as it tries to smooth the way for surging Chinese investment abroad.
The new regulations would reduce from 79 to 35 the number of sectors in which foreign companies are required to form joint ventures with domestic businesses or are limited to minority stakes.
However, several of the sectors removed from the list will remain restricted to foreign companies because of separate regulations and most of the newly opened industries are small and specialised or are already dominated by highly competitive Chinese companies.