Wuhan acts to give full play to foreign capital

Wuhan in Hubei province released a batch of 12 new measures for expanding the utilization of foreign capital to promote the high-quality development of the local economy on March 21.

In recent years, Wuhan has made remarkable achievements in attracting foreign capital, and Wuhan's overall utilized foreign capital in 2018 exceeded $10 billion, making it a pioneer among similar cities in China.

It was expected that the launch of these 12 innovative measures would give foreign investors the confidence to invest in Wuhan and increase its use of foreign capital as it faces challenges such as the slow flow of international capital and insufficient project reserves.

According to the document, Wuhan will implement a negative list on market access for foreign investment. Besides the negative list, both domestic enterprises and foreign-funded enterprises with no bad credit records will enjoy equal status in areas such as tendering and bidding, government procurement and the transfer of State-owned land.

Foreign-funded enterprises are allowed to carry out bonded detection and global maintenance services featuring high technology, high value-added and environmental compliance in comprehensive bonded areas in Wuhan.

Foreign capital will be able to participate in the establishment of new national bases for sectors such as memorizers, new energy and intelligent automobiles, network security innovation, talent cultivation and the space industry along with the construction of world-class industrial clusters for optoelectronics information, automobiles and parts, biological medicine and medical apparatus and instruments.

Unicorn companies, startups valued at more than $1 billion ($145 million), recognized by authorities that settle in Wuhan can get a one-time reward of 5 million yuan if the company's total project investment exceeds $100 million and its contributed capital amounts to over $10 million.

National key laboratories and technology innovation centers led by foreign-funded enterprises can receive the same amount of provincial financial aid from local public finance, and the highest one-time grant for each single platform is 2.5 million yuan.

Independent legal research and development institutions set up in Wuhan's comprehensive bonded areas applying for preferential policies to attract foreign businesses and investment in Wuhan can receive an additional reward of 500,000 yuan.

Sino-foreign joint venture hospitals in Wuhan can apply to be listed among the designated scope of local medical insurance. New medicines and medical apparatus and instruments meeting the requirements of listing or registration manufactured by foreign-funded enterprises based in Wuhan are expected to be included in the coverage of basic medical insurance reimbursement.

Experiments will be carried out on involving foreign capital in construction projects such as cooling, heating and power (CHP) systems, sewage and refuse treatment, integrated underground pipelines, highway and ports.