China improves business environment, provides foreign investors with larger markets: white paper

Photo taken on Nov. 3, 2020 shows a view of the Lujiazui area of Pudong, east China's Shanghai. (Xinhua/Ding Ting)

BEIJING, Sept. 28 (Xinhua) -- China is steadily improving its business environment and providing foreign investors with larger markets, said a white paper released Tuesday by China's State Council Information Office.

In 2020, China took 31st place among 190 economies in the World Bank's ease of doing business ranking, rising from 91st place in 2012, according to the white paper titled "China's Epic Journey from Poverty to Prosperity."

The country has formulated high-standard policies to facilitate free trade and investment, including enacting the Foreign Investment Law, implementing pre-establishment national treatment, and expanding market access by reducing the number of items on the negative list, said the white paper.

China has received a new high of more than 1 trillion yuan (about 156 billion U.S. dollars) of foreign direct investment in 2020, according to the white paper.