China is looking to remove foreign ownership restrictions in all shipping sectors, as part of its efforts to further strengthen its position as a maritime superpower.
He Jianzhong, deputy minister at China’s Ministry of Transport, said at the World Shipping Summit that China is going to fully open its shipping market by removing foreign ownership restrictions in all shipping sectors and auxiliary sectors and promote the free trade zone policy into more regions in the country.
Recently, the Chinese government approved the establishment of a new free trade zone in Hainan province, following the setup of FTZs at Shanghai, Tianjin, Guangdong, Fujian and planned FTZs at inland provinces Sichuan, Henan and Hubei and Shaanxi.
In the past few years, China has already lifted foreign ownership restrictions in many shipping sectors including shipowning, shipmanagement, shipping agency, cargo handling and shipbuilding.
The welcoming of private entities is part of a greater overarching scheme put forward by the Xi Jinping-led government in the face of the tariff war with the US.
