China has decided to make the "negative list" approach national in 2018 with the aim of streamlining government administration and giving more freedom to the market.

Opening all sectors except a proscribed few to investors will be expanded in some regions between 2015 and 2017, according to an official statement issued on Monday following the 16th Meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform held last Tuesday. A negative list will be applicable across the country in 2018.

The system has been piloted in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone since 2013.

To live up to its promise to let the market allocate resources, the government is delegating powers to enterprises and letting them decide how to run their businesses.

Opening all sectors except a proscribed few to investors will be expanded in some regions between 2015 and 2017, according to an official statement issued on Monday following the 16th Meeting of the Central Leading Group for Deepening Overall Reform held last Tuesday. A negative list will be applicable across the country in 2018.

The system has been piloted in the Shanghai Free Trade Zone since 2013.

To live up to its promise to let the market allocate resources, the government is delegating powers to enterprises and letting them decide how to run their businesses.

• [Editor:penny]