Since 2022, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE) has been implementing a pilot project for direct registration of external debt by banks in 12 regions including Shanghai, Jiangsu, Guangdong, Shenzhen, Beijing, Zhejiang, Ningbo, Hainan, Xiong’an in Hebei, Chongqing, Fujian and Xiamen, and has been piloting in the above 12 regions and Shaanxi the registration exemption for the reinvestment in China by foreign-funded enterprises, so as to explore further facilitating cross-border investment and financing for business entities. In 2023, the SAFE launched a pilot project of Kehuitong (Research Remittance Connect) in Hetao, Shenzhen, allowing foreign research funds to be transferred directly to foreign-funded non-enterprise research institutions in Hetao, so as to promote the cross-border flow of sci-tech innovation elements. Since its initiation, the project has seen good policy implementation and strongly boosted the economic development in the pilot region while effectively preventing and controlling risks.

In order to thoroughly implement the guiding principle of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th CPC Central Committee and the deployment requirements of the meeting convened by the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee on September 26, and building upon the experience gained from earlier pilot projects, the SAFE recently decided to expand the pilot areas for the registration exemption for reinvestment in China by foreign-funded enterprises and the pilot areas for direct registration of external debt by banks to Tianjin, Anhui, Shandong (including Qingdao), Hubei and Sichuan, and expand the Kehuitong pilot to 16 regions, namely Shanghai, Beijing, Tianjin, Xiong’an in Hebei, Nanjing, Suzhou, Hangzhou, Hefei, Wuhan, Changsha, Guangzhou, Chongqing, Chengdu, Mianyang, Xi’an and Shenzhen.

The SAFE will strengthen policy assessment and follow-up on effectiveness, improve policy measures and foreign exchange services in due course, and explore and introduce more facilitation measures, so as to bolster high-quality development with high-standard opening up. At the same time, the SAFE will persist in coordinating financial opening up and security, enhance capacity-building for regulation in the context of opening up, and firmly guard against the occurrence of systemic financial risks.