China to reduce foreign investment restrictions

China will halve the number of industries in which foreign investment is restricted, according to a government work report to be delivered by Premier Li Keqiang Thursday.[Special coverage]

The country will also revise the Catalogue for the Guidance of Industries for Foreign Investment and make the service and manufacturing sectors more open, according to the report to be delivered to the Third Session of the 12th National People's Congress (NPC), China's top legislature.

"Opening up is itself a reform," according to the report.

"We must carry out a new round of high-quality opening up, move more swiftly in building a new open economy," it read.

China would transform and upgrade its foreign trade, make use of foreign capital more actively and effectively and speed up the implementation of the "go global" strategy, according to the report.

The country will also promote multilateral, bilateral, and regional opening up and cooperation, it read.