Foreign investors to get better services

The Shanghai government vowed to provide better services for foreign investors as the city's first regulation on foreign investment passed in its legislature on Friday.

Shen Weihua, vice director of the city's commerce commission, said service centers will be established at city and district levels to hear complaints and protect the legal rights of foreign investors and companies established under foreign investment.

The current foreign invest service platform will also take complaints of users.

"The commerce commission will be the last resort for foreign investors when they have exhausted other means to seek solutions to their complaints," Shen said.

Zhang Li, director of the department of open economy development of the city's development and reform commission, said the commission will renew its effort to serve foreign investors in major investment projects.

Green channels and "one-shop services" will be offered to investors going through red tape involving approvals, planning, land resources, environment issues, energy use, construction and foreign exchange to facilitate the projects, she said.

"The key investment projects referred to not only include those with a large amount of investment, but also those of great breakthroughs and those demanding a lot of coordination," she added.

Besides general and supplementary provisions, the regulation passed on Friday includes chapters on further opening-up and investment promotion, protection, management and services.

The regulation will soon be available in English, Japanese and some other languages.

Shanghai, though accounting for only 2 percent of China's population, has used over 10 percent of the foreign investment. The actual foreign investment implemented in the city in the first eight months of this year amounted to US$13.9 billion, a 5.9 percent rise from the same period last year, according to the government.

Foreign investors are key contributors to the city's economy, labor market, tax income, exports and imports and R&D expenditure.