Xiamen Sea World. [Photo/Xiamen Daily]

Xiamen has recently introduced a comprehensive set of measures to enhance its foreign investment environment and attract greater foreign capital. The package includes 13 practical measures across three key areas.

The measures will remain in effect until Dec 31, 2027. Incentive policies applicable within this period will continue to implement until all commitments are fulfilled. Additionally, the policies will be retroactively applied to eligible cases from Jan 1, 2025, until the official release date.

Enhancing openness to foreign investment

The measures stipulate that Xiamen will fully implement the pre-establishment national treatment plus a negative list management system for foreign investment. The city will uphold the "permission unless prohibited" principle, and work to eliminate barriers hindering market access and exit comprehensively.

Focusing on its "4+4+6" modern industrial system, Xiamen aims to attract targeted investment along industrial chains, directing foreign capital toward priority sectors and addressing critical gaps to strengthen and expand industrial clusters. Eligible foreign-invested enterprises listed in the Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment Main contents will benefit from import duty exemptions on equipment.

The city will support foreign-funded R&D centers with preferential policies, such as tax exemptions on innovation-related imports and VAT rebates for domestic equipment procurement. Additionally, foreign-invested enterprises are encouraged to obtain the national high-tech enterprise certification to qualify for corporate income tax incentives in accordance with regulations.

To incentivize foreign-invested enterprises to capitalize investments, Xiamen will provide financial rewards for newly established (including M&A) or existing (including capital-increased) foreign-invested enterprises (excluding equity investment and real estate development enterprises) that achieve actual utilized foreign capital increments of $10 million or more within a single calendar year from 2025 to 2027.

Once investment conditions are met, a reward will be issued over three years. Manufacturing investment projects will receive a three percent reward for their annual actual foreign investment in Xiamen, while other investment projects will receive a two percent reward. The maximum annual reward for a single enterprise shall not exceed 20 million yuan ($2.75 million).

Strengthening support for key development factors

To safeguard foreign investment, the measures introduce several provisions addressing key concerns of foreign enterprises, including labor recruitment, project construction, financial services, cross-border data flows, and facilitation of international fund transfers and personnel mobility. These measures aim to accelerate project implementation and ensure foreign-invested enterprises can establish long-term operations and growth in Xiamen.

To support workforce needs, employees of foreign-invested enterprises renting public housing will be eligible for prescribed rental discounts. Furthermore, foreign-invested enterprises will be allowed to utilize the "dual-control" industrial land quotas to construct dormitory-style affordable rental housing, with such projects qualifying for corresponding policy support under applicable regulations.

Xiamen will also enhance foreign exchange facilitation for foreign-invested enterprises, permitting free and delay-free remittance of all legitimate investment-related transfers into and out of the pilot free trade zone under real and compliant conditions. The city will implement a digital cross-border flow pilot program within the FTZ, establishing a negative list for data to standardize and streamline cross-border data management.

Optimizing business environment

The measures introduce comprehensive provisions to safeguard national treatment for foreign-invested enterprises, strengthen the protection mechanism for their legitimate rights and interests, and refine service mechanisms for foreign investment operations.

The policies guarantee that foreign-invested enterprises will have access to all municipal enterprise development policies in accordance with the law. In government procurement activities, domestically produced goods and services provided by foreign-invested enterprises will receive equal treatment as their domestic counterparts, with any discriminatory practices against foreign-invested enterprises being investigated and penalized as legally required.

The measures encourage foreign-invested enterprises to participate in drafting international and national standards, and guarantee equal treatment in Xiamen's standardization initiatives. The city will also promote their participation in BRICS standardization services as well as standardization innovation research.

To provide continuous support, Xiamen will establish a comprehensive, full-lifecycle service system for foreign-invested enterprises. Dedicated task forces will be assigned to facilitate the early implementation of major and key foreign-funded projects. The city will actively implement its enterprise benefit service initiative to promptly address the legitimate needs of foreign-invested enterprises and proactively resolve operational and production challenges they encounter.