China has signed 31 antimonopoly cooperation documents with countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative, including Russia and Kazakhstan.

The nation is also pushing forward the signing of memorandums of understanding on fair competition with Venezuela and Kuwait, the State Administration for Market Regulation told China Daily on Wednesday.

Liu Jiannan, head of the international department at the SAMR, said the move is part of broader efforts to deepen global cooperation on antimonopoly efforts and fair competition, including with BRI countries, so as to offer a business environment that is "market-oriented, law-based and international".

Liu said the market regulator will maintain "a regulatory manner that is tolerant and open-minded" to boost the confidence of foreign companies about China's "ultra-large unified market".

"China will proactively respond to the concerns of foreign companies, including consumer protection, intellectual property protection, competition, measurement, standards, conformity assessment and food safety," Liu said.

To meet the specific needs of the BRI economies and implement mutual recognition of quality certification on some projects that are "small yet smart", the market regulator has offered technical support on product quality to several of them, Liu said.

For instance, China has helped Russia solve metrological problems during the handover of oil and gas trade, and has given full play to the advantages of special equipment testing services to help eliminate safety hazards from such equipment.

On Tuesday, China and Russia also signed an MoU to cooperate on antimonopoly efforts and anti-unfair competition and advertising, and agreed to deepen cooperation for a better economic and trade environment.

Zhou Zhigao, deputy head of competition coordination at the SAMR, said China is also actively driving an institutional environment of fair competition for multilateral and bilateral free trade, and has set up a special chapter on competition policy in free trade agreements with seven economies that are involved in the BRI and the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, such as Serbia and Ecuador.

"China will continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation, proactively promote negotiations on competition chapters of free trade agreements, and deepen institutional opening-up in the field of competition with other BRI economies to create a sound legal environment for all," Zhao said.

Through global platforms like Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation, the country has strengthened communication and cooperation with economies like Russia and South Africa in the field of fair competition, and has promoted the establishment of regular communication mechanisms in the field of competition with South Korea and Singapore, he added.

Source: China Daily