Plans approved to support Beijing's service sector opening up

China has approved the plan for supporting Beijing to build a comprehensive demonstration zone for opening up the services sector to seek more growth points, according to information released by the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

Approved by the State Council, the Beijing plans aim to explore broader, more extensive and deeper openings in the service sector, stimulating market vitality and societal creativity.

The plan, taking into account the development needs of industries such as telecommunications, healthcare, cultural and education, financial and professional services, proposes over 170 pilot tasks in six aspects, including advancing key areas of the service industry through deepening reforms and expanding openness, exploring rules and norms for emerging formats and improving the policy environment for public services, said the commerce ministry.

For instance, Beijing will lift foreign ownership restrictions on value-added telecommunications services such as information and internet access services. The city will consider further expanding the opening-up of value-added telecommunications services at an appropriate time.

In the field of healthcare and medical services, Beijing will support qualified foreign doctors in opening clinics within the city. In the professional services sector, qualified foreign individuals are allowed to engage in securities investment consulting and futures trading consulting businesses.