The facilitation level of cross-border trade and investment and financing continues to improve

Implement a package of policies to support stable development of foreign trade and deepen cross-border investment and financing reform; Supporting cross-border e-commerce and other new trade formats to handle over 1 billion foreign exchange transactions online, helping to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment; Deepening the development of the foreign exchange market, effectively ensuring the demand for foreign exchange, the trading volume of the foreign exchange market and the foreign exchange hedging ratio of enterprises have both reached historical highs; Focus on supporting science and technology innovation enterprises and do a good job in financial "five major articles"; Continuously optimizing personal foreign exchange services for foreign nationals coming to China; Improving foreign exchange policies and ecological evaluation mechanisms... Looking back at 2025, the reform and opening up in the foreign exchange field has taken new steps and achieved new results, and the quality and efficiency of foreign exchange services for the real economy have reached a new level.

The recently held 2026 National Conference on Foreign Exchange Management summarized the work of foreign exchange management in 2025 and made arrangements for key tasks in 2026. The meeting emphasized that in 2026, foreign exchange management work should adhere to seeking progress while maintaining stability, improving quality and efficiency, better coordinating development and security, focusing on building a "more convenient, more open, more secure, and more intelligent" foreign exchange management system and mechanism, promoting deep level reform and high-level opening up in the foreign exchange field, effectively safeguarding the foreign exchange needs of various entities, preventing and resolving external impact risks, further strengthening in-process and post event supervision, and striving to create a foreign exchange policy environment that is both "flexible" and "well managed", contributing foreign exchange strength to the opening and starting of the "15th Five Year Plan".

Zhu Hexin, Director of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange, recently wrote an article stating that in terms of "greater convenience", we should be guided by the needs of market entities and improve the convenience of foreign exchange business. Strengthen the reform and innovation of foreign exchange management, and continuously improve the facilitation level of cross-border trade and investment and financing. Actively support the development of new quality productive forces and strengthen foreign exchange services for major strategies, key areas, and weak links.

Assist in stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment

In 2025, China will steadfastly expand its high-level opening-up to the outside world, and its foreign trade and investment will withstand pressure, maintain momentum, and demonstrate vitality in a complex environment. According to customs statistics, the total import and export value of goods trade in China reached 41.21 trillion yuan in the first 11 months of 2025, a year-on-year increase of 3.6%. From January to November 2025, there will be 61207 newly established foreign-invested enterprises nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 16.9%; The actual amount of foreign investment used was 693.18 billion yuan.

Behind this, strong support from a package of foreign exchange policies is indispensable. In order to help stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has implemented a package of policies to support the stable development of foreign trade, including expanding the pilot program for high-level opening up of cross-border trade, optimizing the settlement of foreign exchange funds for comprehensive foreign trade service enterprises, and facilitating the use of foreign exchange for the salaries of foreign employees in high-quality enterprises. At the same time, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has deepened the reform of foreign exchange management for cross-border investment and financing, and introduced a package of nine facilitation policies for cross-border investment, financing, and capital account receipts and payments.

Currently, with the continuous deepening of digital transformation in trade and industry, new forms of trade represented by cross-border e-commerce and market procurement trade are rapidly developing and gradually becoming important engines for stabilizing the scale and optimizing the structure of foreign trade. The State Administration of Foreign Exchange, in accordance with the principles of "encouraging innovation, inclusiveness and prudence", actively explores more flexible and efficient audit methods and more convenient and reliable settlement paths, creates a safe, efficient and low-cost settlement environment, and assists in the standardized and innovative development of new foreign trade formats and models. Data shows that by 2025, over 1 billion cross-border e-commerce and other foreign exchange transactions will be processed online nationwide, serving over 1.8 million small and micro merchants.

In addition, by 2025, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will include more banks and high-quality enterprises in the pilot program for high-level opening up of cross-border trade and the policy of facilitating trade foreign exchange receipts and payments, with a national scale of handling related business exceeding 1.5 trillion US dollars; Promoting financial institutions to establish a long-term mechanism for exchange rate hedging services, the foreign exchange hedging ratio of enterprises has risen to 30.2%, reaching a historic high.

For the next steps of work, the meeting clarified the need to optimize the management of trade and foreign exchange business, expand the pilot program for high-level opening up of cross-border trade in an orderly manner, increase support for the development of new trade formats such as cross-border e-commerce, and improve the management of enterprise trade credit reports. Build an open, diverse, functionally sound, and competitive foreign exchange market, support financial institutions in developing simple and easy-to-use exchange rate hedging products, reduce the cost of exchange rate hedging for small and medium-sized enterprises, and improve the level of infrastructure services in the foreign exchange market.

Five major articles on finance

High tech and specialized new enterprises are important forces driving innovation driven development. In recent years, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has continuously expanded cross-border financing channels for enterprises, supporting high-tech enterprises to better utilize both domestic and international markets and resources.

In September 2025, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange issued the "Notice of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange on Deepening the Reform of Cross border Investment and Financing Foreign Exchange Management" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), which clarifies that high-tech, specialized, new and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises that meet the conditions nationwide can borrow foreign debt within a limit not exceeding the equivalent of 10 million US dollars. Among them, eligible enterprises selected by relevant departments based on the "Innovation Points System" can borrow foreign debt within a limit not exceeding the equivalent of 20 million US dollars.

Industry experts believe that this measure is beneficial for enterprises to reduce financing costs, increase research and development investment, and promote technological progress. At present, this policy has benefited 1.3 million high-tech, specialized and innovative, and technology-based small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, in order to promote the cross-border flow of scientific and technological innovation factors and facilitate the attraction and utilization of foreign investment by non enterprise scientific research institutions, the "Notice" will further promote the "Kehuitong" pilot program that has been implemented in 16 regions to the whole country, and clarify that domestic non enterprise scientific research institutions should follow the registration and exchange procedures of FDI enterprises when receiving overseas funds.

In terms of supporting the development of green finance, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange has launched a pilot program for green foreign debt business, continuously improving the convenience level of handling green foreign debt business, and encouraging enterprises to use cross-border financing funds for green or low-carbon transformation projects. At present, the pilot program has been expanded to 18 provinces and cities, with a pilot business scale of approximately 1.1 billion US dollars.

In addition, in 2025, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange will focus on market demand, conduct in-depth planning and research, continuously enrich the application scenarios of cross-border financial service platforms, and expand the audience of operating entities. At present, the deepening cross-border financial service platform has expanded to 15 application scenarios, serving over 160000 enterprises, assisting in financing of over 450 billion US dollars, and supporting convenient foreign exchange payments of over 2.5 trillion US dollars.

For the next step of work, the meeting clarified that we will continue to focus on the "five major articles" in finance and expand the application scenarios of cross-border financial service platforms. Strengthen the transmission and evaluation of foreign exchange policies, and improve the effectiveness of policy implementation.