China to lift foreign ownership restrictions for shipbuilding
China’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) has announced a timeline to lift its restrictions on foreign ownership in several sectors including auto manufacturing, aircraft manufacturing and shipbuilding.
NDRC said it will move this year to cancel the restrictions for shipbuilding including ship construction, ship repair and ship design.
NDRC said the latest move is a clear indication of China’s opposition to trade and investment protectionism, and shows the government’s clear support to widening and deepening the development of economic globalisation.
“Through the full liberalisation of the manufacturing industry, we will support Chinese and foreign companies in achieving common development on a level playing field,” NDRC said.
In the past two years, Beijing has already lifted foreign ownerships restrictions in the country’s Free Trade Zones in segments of shipping including shipmanagement, shipowning and shipping agency.
So “sometime” this year, China will “move” to lift restrictions on foreign ownership. So by 31 December we will have a timetable (maybe) in place. It will probably be quite a while until anything really changes.