On December 15, 2025, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) published the latest Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment (2025 Version) (hereinafter referred to as “the 2025 Catalogue”).

In general, the Catalogue is an important national document for China’s foreign investment policies, which was first made public in 2019 by NDRC. The 2025 version is still consists of two parts: the Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment and the Catalogue of Industries for Guiding Foreign Investment (includes 14 product categories and 619 specific items), and the Catalogue of Priority Industries for Foreign Investment in the Central-Western Regions (including 22 regions/provinces with a total of 1055 specific items).  

The 2025 Catalogue, as the previous version, lists out all the sectors that encourage foreign investments in China, and compared to the 2024 version, the 2025 Catalogue features the following key updates:

-   Newly items added: A new major category, "water conservancy, environment, and public facilities management," has been introduced. It covers water environment governance, urban transportation, waste treatment, and water-saving facilities, emphasizing green infrastructure and ecological protection.

-   Expansion of the hydrogen energy industry Chain: Explicit encouragement is now given to "the production, manufacturing, and R&D of equipment related to new energy-based hydrogen production, storage, transportation systems, and hydrogen applications," promoting the development of the entire hydrogen value chain.

-   Enhanced safety and standards: Higher safety-level requirements are emphasized in fields like automotive electronics and chips, such as the "functional safety ASIL D" standard, reflecting a greater focus on technological reliability.

-   Strengthened circular economy and resource utilization: The utilization of industrial by-products like "gasification slag" has been added, reinforcing waste resource recovery and industrial synergistic processing.

-   Opening of higher education: "Higher education institutions" have been added to the encouraged category in multiple central and western provinces (e.g., Inner Mongolia, Anhui, Henan), facilitating foreign participation in the education sector.

Foreign stakeholders are advised to notice that the 2025 Catalogue places greater emphasis on green and low-carbon development, high-tech safety, resource recycling, and further expands the opening of the service sector in central and western regions.