Business leaders see plans as beneficial

Leading business executives said they are heartened by a concrete suite of action plans put forward by President Xi Jinping on Tuesday to further open up the Chinese economy, which would reinforce their commitments to invest and grow in the country.

President Xi has set a "clear direction" through a host of "landmark measures" that drive toward deepened reforms and help fulfill China's responsibility as a global leader, said Denis Depoux, chief executive of global consultancy Roland Berger in China.

"The president did not just pledge for reform, … he also highlighted several key measures regarding the Chinese market and wants them to be implemented sooner than later," Depoux said.

In a speech that Depoux deemed as "serene, holistic, determined and audacious", Xi proposed broader and easier access for foreigners to a variety of sectors, from automobile manufacturing to finance. This charts a new development path forward for China that also benefits the world, he said.

Rudolf Staudigl, chief executive of Wacker Chemie, said he is "positively surprised" to hear such a concrete plan that includes lowering import tariffs in certain areas and trimming certain restrictions on equity share participation from foreign players.

"Through opening-up, production becomes more efficient through specialization and economies of scale, meanwhile spurring competition and innovation," Staudigl said.

The directions Xi signaled would provide multinational companies with even better investment conditions so they can offer an expanding portfolio of products tailoring to local preferences, said Zhang Jiantao, vice-president of Coca-Cola China.

To be more specific, Beijing's pledges to ease foreign-ownership limits and strengthen protection on intellectual property rights are fundamental components of investment-related businesses, said Allen Blue, co-founder of the US professional networking site LinkedIn.

"Reducing certain barriers for certain industries can increase competition and bring more goods and services into the Chinese economy, which would, in turn, help achieve China's goal of building a moderately prosperous society," Blue said.

"With a special emphasis on the equality of IPRs for all companies, President Xi underscored how this would stimulate innovation in a global context and how we build up local innovative capabilities here," said Allan Gabor, president of Merck Group in China.

Chinese companies also stand to benefit from the enhanced IPR protections, notably when doing business overseas, said Sun Pishu, chairman of China's largest server-maker, Inspur Group.

Proposals to expand imports and lower certain tariffs also spell a huge boon to startup firms engaged in cross-border trade, said Qu Fang, founder of online community and e-commerce site Red, or Xiao Hongshu.

Answering the government's call to drive the economy forward by meeting domestic consumption, Qu said her company is thrilled to participate in the China International Import Expo in November and is poised to deepen engagement in Belt and Road Initiative participating nations.