- The State Council-approved Action Plan for Stabilizing and Optimizing Foreign Investment (商资发〔2026〕97号) was issued on 16 June 2026 and published on 22 June, with 5 areas and 15 measures.
经国务院同意的《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》（商资发〔2026〕97号）于2026年6月16日印发、22日发布，含5方面15条举措。- The plan was built with 27 departments around concerns gathered from foreign-enterprise roundtables and key-project task forces.
方案由27个部门围绕外资企业圆桌会、重点项目专班收集的关切制定。- Market-access measures deepen services, finance and pharma opening — vocational-education pilots, treasury-futures access, and drug segmented-production rules.
市场准入举措深化服务业、金融、医药开放——职教试点、国债期货准入、药品分段生产细则。- Convenience measures ease foreign M&A, data export and reinvestment, including tax preferences for profit-reinvestment and strategic-investor status for qualified foreign equity funds.
便利举措放宽外资并购、数据出境与再投资，含利润再投资税收优惠及合格外资股权基金的战略投资者身份。- The plan pledges full national treatment, fair-competition review in procurement and bidding, and a cyber-rights complaint mechanism for foreign firms.
方案承诺全面落实外资国民待遇、招投标公平竞争审查，并建外资企业网络侵权举报联动机制。- Its core goal is to “stabilise the scale and upgrade the quality” of foreign investment — the “固稳促优” agenda for the 15th Five-Year Plan.
其核心目标是外资”稳规模、提质量”——十五五的”固稳促优”议程。
2026 State Council Action Plan on Foreign Capital: Stabilizing and Upgrading Investment | 2026年国务院稳外资行动方案：固稳促优
The Plan at a Glance
On 16 June 2026, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance jointly issued the *Action Plan for Stabilizing and Optimizing Foreign Investment* (商资发〔2026〕97号), published on 22 June after State Council approval (经国务院同意). It is the centrepiece of Beijing’s 2026 “stabilise foreign capital” (稳外资) push and the operative document for the foreign-investment chapter of the 15th Five-Year Plan. Crucially, it was not drafted in isolation: as MOFCOM explained at the State Council Information Office briefing, the plan was built with 27 departments, drawing on concerns collected month by month from foreign-enterprise roundtables, key foreign-invested-project task forces, and bilateral and multilateral economic mechanisms. Its framing slogan is 固稳促优 — “consolidate, stabilise, and optimise” — and its stated aim is to stabilise the scale of foreign investment while upgrading its quality.
Five Areas, Fifteen Measures
The plan organises 15 measures under five headings:
- Expand market access (扩大市场准入)
- Improve the convenience of foreign investment (提升外商投资便利度)
- Raise the level of investment promotion (提高投资促进水平)
- Strengthen the foreign-investment service guarantee system (健全外商投资服务保障体系)
- Optimise foreign-investment management (优化外资管理)
The structure moves deliberately from “can you enter?” (market access) to “is it easy to operate?” (convenience) to “are you treated fairly?” (service guarantee) to “is administration efficient?” (management) — a full-lifecycle view of the foreign-investor experience.
Expanding Market Access
The first area is where the plan touches the negative list most directly:
- Services. It proposes steadily expanding pilot openings for vocational training institutions, vocational schools, and high-level universities in science, technology, agriculture and medicine; supports Beijing in upgrading its Comprehensive Demonstration Zone for Services Opening to trial digital-economy and health-care moves first; and upgrades the Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) with Hong Kong and Macao to open services to them first.
- Finance. It supports more foreign institutions in using risk-management tools including treasury futures, in conducting fund-investment-advisory business, and provides qualified key foreign firms with cross-border financing facilitation quotas and “customer-billed” international settlement services; it optimises pre-communication before exchange listing and supports qualified foreign enterprises in domestic listing.
- Pharma and industry. It commits to issuing rules on cross-border segmented drug production (药品分段生产) to let overseas marketing-authorisation holders manufacture biologics and chemicals across borders, to expanding the geographic scope of biotech and wholly foreign-owned-hospital pilots, and to bringing innovative drugs and devices into commercial insurance and retail channels.
Lowering the Cost of Doing Business
The second area attacks frictions that foreign firms cite most often:
- Foreign M&A. It will revise the rules on foreign investors acquiring domestic enterprises, streamline the process and payment terms, and — notably — allow qualified foreign equity-investment institutions to act as strategic investors in the securities issuance of non-related listed companies.
- Data export. It supports FTZs and services-opening pilot cities in exploring scenario-based, field-level data-export negative lists, and promotes national standards for identifying important data across industries such as industry, telecom, geographic information, automotive, pharma, seeds, aerospace and civil aviation.
- Reinvestment. It implements the tax preference for foreign investors using distributed profits for direct investment, and pulls more reinvestment projects into the major/key foreign-project lists for service support.
- R&D centres. It eases the introduction of high-level foreign talent, supports open innovation platforms and training bases, and extends import-tax preferences for research supplies.
Raising the Level of Investment Promotion
The third area builds the “Invest in China” (投资中国) brand: it establishes a digital comprehensive service platform and portal, issues an encouragement/prohibition list for local government investment promotion, requires governments to honour policy commitments, and uses foreign economic and trade development funds to support foreign investment. The explicit intent is to make investment promotion more rules-based and less ad hoc, and to give foreign firms a clearer, nationally consistent picture of where incentives lie.
Strengthening the Service Guarantee
The fourth area is about fairness. The plan requires full implementation of national treatment for foreign firms, strengthens fair-competition review in government procurement and bidding, and supports foreign firms in consumer-boosting campaigns, government procurement and bidding on an equal footing. It also establishes a linked mechanism for reporting online infringements of foreign-enterprise rights, responding to a recurring complaint that foreign brands are exposed to unfair online treatment.
Optimising Foreign-Investment Management
The fifth area upgrades the plumbing: it will comprehensively optimise the foreign-investment information-reporting system, build direct reporting channels, and improve information sharing to support foreign-exchange registration, administrative licensing and fixed-asset-investment management. The subtext is that lighter, better-integrated reporting reduces compliance cost without loosening oversight.
Why It Matters for Investors
The plan arrives against a specific backdrop. MOFCOM data for Jan–May 2026 show actual utilised FDI at 327.29 billion yuan, down 8.6% year-on-year, though the decline narrowed by 4.6 points and May alone rose 5.9%. Officials describe foreign investment as exhibiting “four stabilities” — stable scale, stable operation, stable contribution, and stable expectations (规模稳、经营稳、贡献稳、预期稳) — with stock foreign capital rising and incremental flows broadly stable above outflows. The Action Plan is the policy response designed to defend and improve that position during the 15th FYP’s opening years.
How to Act on It
- Map your sector to a measure. Services, finance and pharma players should trace their plans to the specific opening clause.
- Use the M&A and strategic-investor route. Qualified foreign equity funds now have a clearer path into listed companies.
- Claim reinvestment tax preferences. If you reinvest distributed profits, confirm eligibility for the direct-investment tax preference.
- Engage the roundtable channel. The plan institutionalises the foreign-enterprise roundtable — use it to surface blockers.
- Plan for national treatment. Expect equal footing in procurement and bidding; document any deviation.
The 2026 Action Plan is less a single concession than a system: it pairs further opening with concrete fixes to the everyday frictions that determine whether foreign capital stays.
2026年国务院稳外资行动方案：固稳促优
方案概览
2026年6月16日，商务部、国家发展改革委、财政部联合印发《利用外资固稳促优行动方案》（商资发〔2026〕97号），经国务院同意后于6月22日发布。它是2026年”稳外资”部署的核心文件，也是十五五规划外资篇章的落地文件。关键在于，它并非孤立起草：正如商务部在国新办发布会上所言，方案由27个部门参与制定，吸纳了通过外资企业圆桌会、重点外资项目专班、多双边经贸机制逐月收集的关切。其主题词为”固稳促优”，明确目标是稳外资规模、提外资质量。
五方面，十五条
方案将15条举措归入五类：
- 扩大市场准入
- 提升外商投资便利度
- 提高投资促进水平
- 健全外商投资服务保障体系
- 优化外资管理
结构刻意由”能否进入”（市场准入）走向”是否易营”（便利度）、”是否受公平对待”（服务保障），再到”行政是否高效”（管理）——对外资全生命周期体验的系统性审视。
扩大市场准入
第一方面是方案与负面清单交集最直接之处：
- 服务业。 稳步扩大职业技能培训机构、职业院校、高水平理工农医类大学对外开放试点；支持北京提升服务业扩大开放综合示范区水平，在数字经济、医药健康等领域先行先试；升级与港澳 CEPA，在服务业对港澳投资者率先加大开放。
- 金融业。 支持更多外资机构使用包括国债期货在内的风险管理工具、依法开展基金投资顾问业务；为符合条件的重点外资企业提供跨境融资便利化额度与”代客制单”国际结算服务；优化上市申报前预沟通，支持符合条件的重点外资企业境内上市融资。
- 医药与产业。 出台药品分段生产细则便利境外上市许可持有人跨境分段生产；扩大生物技术与外商独资医院试点地域范围；推动创新药械纳入商业保险与零售渠道。
降低经营成本
第二方面直面外资最常提及的摩擦：
- 外资并购。 修订外国投资者并购境内企业规定、优化流程与对价支付；并允许符合条件的外资股权投资机构以战略投资者身份参与非相关行业上市公司证券发行。
- 数据出境。 支持自贸区与服务业开放试点城市探索场景化、字段级数据出境负面清单；推动工业、电信、地理信息、汽车、医药、种业、航天、民航等行业重要数据识别目录国家标准。
- 再投资。 落实境外投资者以分配利润直接投资税收优惠；将更多再投资项目纳入重大／重点外资项目清单享受服务保障。
- 研发中心。 便利外籍高层次人才引进，支持开放式创新平台与实训基地，落实科研用品进口税收优惠。
提高投资促进水平
第三方面打造”投资中国”品牌：建设数字综合服务平台与门户；出台地方政府招商引资鼓励／禁止事项清单；要求政府严格兑现政策承诺；运用外经贸发展资金支持外资。其明确意图是使招商更规则化、更少临时化，并为外资提供全国统一、更清晰的激励图景。
健全服务保障
第四方面关乎公平。方案要求全面落实外资国民待遇，加强政府采购、招投标公平竞争审查，支持外资平等参与提振消费、政府采购、招投标。并建立外资企业网络侵权举报联动机制，回应外资品牌常遭不公平网络对待的反复诉求。
优化外资管理
第五方面升级”管道”：全面优化外商投资信息报告制度，健全直报渠道与信息共享，支撑外汇登记、行政许可、固定资产投资管理。其潜台词是：更轻、更融合的报告在放宽监管成本的同时不松懈监督。
对投资者为何重要
方案出台于特定背景。商务部2026年1—5月数据显示，实际使用外资3,272.9亿元，同比降8.6%，但降幅收窄4.6个百分点，5月当月增5.9%。官方将外资描述为”四稳”——规模稳、经营稳、贡献稳、预期稳——存量外资稳中有升、增量总体稳定且高于流出。行动方案正是为在十五五开局之年守住并改善这一态势的政策回应。
如何据此行动
- 将行业对应到举措。 服务业、金融、医药玩家应将自身规划追溯至具体开放条款。
- 利用并购与战略投资者路径。 合格外资股权基金现有了更清晰的上市公司进入通道。
- 申领再投资税收优惠。 若以分配利润再投资，确认是否符合直接投资税收优惠资格。
- 运用圆桌渠道。 方案将外资企业圆桌会制度化——用之暴露堵点。
- 规划国民待遇。 预期在采购、招投标中平等对待；对任何偏差留证。
2026年行动方案与其说是一项让步，不如说是一套系统：它将进一步开放与针对日常摩擦的具体修复相配，而这些摩擦正决定外资去留。
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