China Accelerates Opening-up of Service Sector
The Ministry of Commerce of the PRC released the Work Plan for Accelerating the Comprehensive Pilot Program of Expanding the Opening-up of the Service Industry (hereinafter referred to as the Work Plan) on its official website on 18 April 2025. According to the said Work Plan, 9 new cities including Dalian, Ningbo, Xiamen, Qingdao, Shenzhen, Hefei, Fuzhou, Xi'an, and Suzhou are added as pilot cities in addition to the existing 11 pilot province and cities (i.e. Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan Province, Chongqing, Shenyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou, Chengdu).
Besides, the Work Plan sets out 155 pilot tasks to accelerate the opening-up of the service sector, which mainly include:
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Opening up domestic virtual private network services to foreign investors (foreign equity shall not exceed 50%), and attracting overseas telecom operators to set up joint ventures to provide domestic virtual private network services to local foreign-invested enterprises in the pilot regions .
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Removing the restriction on foreign equity ratio for APP store service (excluding the fields prohibiting from foreign investment).
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Removing the restriction on foreign equity ratio for internet access services (specifically for services that provide internet access to individual users).
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Supporting the establishment of foreign invested nursing colleges to provide training for relevant medical institutions.
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Allowing foreign invested travel agencies to operate outbound tourism services for Chinese citizens (excluding travel to Taiwan).
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Promoting overseas certification agencies to carry out export product certification business in pilot areas after filing.
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Allowing senior management of foreign companies planning to set up subsidiaries or branches in pilot regions to apply for business visas valid for up to two years.
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Simplifying work permit applications for senior management of foreign companies that have invested in and registered foreign invested enterprises in the pilot regions and ensuring that accompanying spouses and dependents enjoy the same entry and temporary stay terms as the senior management.
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Simplifying vias applications for the foreign management and technical personnel of the foreign invested enterprises and ensuring that accompanying spouses and dependents enjoy the same entry and temporary stay terms as the principal visa holders.
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Allowing Hong Kong arbitration institutions to establish offices in Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan, and Chongqing to conduct relevant foreign-related arbitration services.
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Allowing representative offices of Hong Kong law firms in Hainan to engage in certain local commercial non-litigation legal services.
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