Investment Guide Update: Anhui Unveils New Foreign Investment Measures
On March 15, 2025, the Anhui Provincial Government released a sweeping new policy package — the “2025 Action Plan for Optimizing Foreign Investment Services” (2025年优化外商投资服务行动计划, 2025 Nián Yōuhuà Wàishāng Tóuzī Fúwù Xíngdòng Jìhuà) — containing 28 specific measures designed to attract an estimated US$22 billion in utilized FDI by 2027. The plan targets a 12% average annual growth rate for foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) across Anhui’s manufacturing and services sectors, with particular emphasis on EVs, semiconductors, and green energy. This update breaks down the five most consequential measures and their practical implications for foreign investors considering or expanding operations in Anhui Province (安徽省, Ānhuī Shěng).
What the New Measures Cover
The 2025 Action Plan is organized around four strategic pillars: market access expansion, fiscal incentive enhancement, service process digitization, and talent mobility facilitation. Each pillar contains between 4 and 9 specific provisions, with US$4.8 billion in dedicated fiscal allocation over the 2025–2027 period.
The most widely anticipated measure is the expansion of the “Negative List Plus” pilot (负面清单+试点, fùmiàn qīngdān + shìdiǎn) from Hefei to 6 additional cities — Wuhu, Ma’anshan, Bengbu, Xuancheng, Chuzhou, and Anqing. This pilot allows FIE market entry in restricted service categories — such as logistics, software development, and professional consulting — without requiring a local joint-venture partner, provided the project meets a minimum registered capital threshold of US$10 million.
Additionally, the Action Plan introduces a “Fast-Track FIE Approval” (外商投资快速审批, wàishāng tóuzī kuàisù shěnpī) mechanism that sets a statutory review cap of 10 working days for standard manufacturing projects and 15 working days for service-oriented investments. Previous timelines averaged 23 and 32 working days, respectively.
Enhanced Fiscal and Tax Incentives
For manufacturing FIEs that locate in one of Anhui’s 7 national-level development zones, the plan extends the existing 15% reduced corporate income tax (CIT) rate to a wider range of encouraged industries. The new list adds new-energy storage systems, electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, carbon-capture equipment, and biomedical devices — expanding the eligible scope by approximately 34% compared to the 2023 encouraged-industry catalogue.
The fiscal incentives go beyond CIT. FIEs undertaking capital-intensive projects with total investment exceeding US$50 million can now receive land-use fee exemptions for the first 5 years and a 50% reduction for the following 3 years.
A new “Investment Completion Bonus” (投资完成奖励, tóuzī wánchéng jiǎnglì) provides a one-time cash rebate of up to CNY 10 million (approximately US$1.38 million) for projects that achieve commercial operation within 24 months of land grant. This is a notable improvement over the previous scheme, which capped the rebate at CNY 5 million and required a 36-month timeline.
Digital Service Upgrades for Foreign Investors
A major operational change is the launch of the “Anhui Investment Digital Platform” (安徽投资数字平台, Ānhuī Tóuzī Shùzì Píngtái), which centralizes all cross-agency filings — business registration, tax registration, customs clearance, and environmental permits — into a single online interface. The platform supports bilingual (Chinese and English) submission for 37 distinct permit types and provides real-time application tracking.
For the first time, foreign investors can submit notarized corporate documents (certificate of incorporation, board resolutions, passport copies) via encrypted upload rather than requiring originals to be mailed or delivered in person. The provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang have already adopted similar digital-first approaches, with Zhejiang reporting a 41% reduction in FIE setup time since its 2023 digital reform.
Anhui’s system is built on the same cloud infrastructure as Zhejiang’s, which suggests similar efficiency gains are achievable within 12–18 months of full rollout. The platform also introduces a “Service Commitment Response” (服务承诺响应, fúwù chéngnuò xiǎngyìng) feature that logs every government-FIE interaction and mandates a response within 48 hours for standard inquiries and 24 hours for time-sensitive permit approvals.
Non-compliance by local officials triggers automatic escalation to the provincial commerce department, and aggregated compliance data is published quarterly — a transparency mechanism uncommon among Chinese provincial governments.
Talent and Mobility Provisions
Recognizing that skilled foreign talent remains a bottleneck for high-tech FIEs, the Action Plan introduces a “Foreign Talent Fast Lane” (外籍人才快车道, wàijí réncái kuài chēdào) that consolidates visa, work permit, and residence permit applications into a single submission window. Processing time is guaranteed at 7 working days, down from the previous 25-day multi-agency process.
Dependents of foreign employees — spouses and children under 18 — now receive automatic residence permits valid for the same duration as the principal applicant’s work permit. Anhui has also created 1,000 dedicated housing units for foreign professionals across Hefei, Wuhu, and Ma’anshan, offered at subsidized rents of CNY 3,500–6,000 per month for two-bedroom apartments.
This addresses a pain point frequently cited in the 2024 Anhui Foreign Investor Sentiment Survey, where 63% of respondents ranked “suitable housing for expatriate staff” as a top-3 operational challenge. In a significant first for a non-coastal province, the plan permits foreign professionals holding a Category A Foreigner’s Work Permit (高端外国人才, gāoduān wàiguó réncái) in technology, research, or academia to apply for a 5-year residence permit without an annual revalidation requirement.
This matches the policy offered by Shanghai’s Lingang Special Area and signals Anhui’s intent to compete directly with tier-1 cities for top-tier international talent.
What This Means for Investors
The 2025 Action Plan represents the most aggressive foreign-investor-friendly policy package Anhui has issued in a decade. Taken together, the measures reduce regulatory friction, improve fiscal terms, and enhance talent mobility in ways that make the province directly comparable to Jiangsu and Zhejiang for manufacturing and certain services investments.
The expansion of the Negative List Plus pilot to 6 additional cities effectively opens a market of 23 million people (the combined urban population of those cities) to wholly foreign-owned service enterprises — a segment previously reserved for joint ventures or domestic players. However, investors should note that implementation fidelity will vary.
Anhui’s previous reform cycle (2022–2024) achieved full compliance in Hefei and Wuhu, but prefecture-level cities like Bengbu and Anqing reported partial implementation lag of 6–8 months. We recommend that investors conduct a local implementation audit with the relevant city’s Foreign Investment Service Center (外商投资服务中心, wàishāng tóuzī fúwù zhōngxīn) before committing to site selection in non-Hefei locations.
Where to Go From Here
Based on what you just read:
- Ready? Submit your investment inquiry to the Anhui Department of Commerce
- Comparing? Check our side-by-side analysis of provincial FIE incentives for 2025
- Need numbers? View the full 2025 Action Plan summary with data tables
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