India has become a major destination for FDI under the 'Make In India' programme.
Increasing competition from India in foreign investment and a dwindling foreign exchange reserves has forced China to review its age-old practices.
President Xi Jinping has vowed that Beijing will continue to liberalise its economy on all fronts as his country finds its forex reserves - the world's largest - dip below USD 3 trillion, sparking concerns among Chinese policymakers.
With a renewed focus on Foreign Direct Investment or FDI, China is expected to aggressively vie with India for investments abroad. In the past few years, India has become a major destination for FDI under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's flagship 'Make In India' programme.
According to a Financial Times report, "In 2015, India was for the first time the leading country (USD 63 billion) in the world for FDI, overtaking the US (which had USD 59.6 billion of greenfield FDI) and China (USD 56.6 billion)."
Mr Jingping's remarks assume significance as China has been loosening its grip on foreign capital inflows, and reducing restrictive measures and opening more sectors.
Yesterday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in a government work report detailed "unprecedented" opening-up measures to the outside world under its flagship 'Made in China' initiative.
"Foreign firms will be treated the same as domestic firms when it comes to licences applications, standard setting, government procurement and will enjoy same preferential policies under Made in China 2025 initiative," Mr Li said.
Foreign firms will be able to get listed on China's stock markets and issue bonds. They will be allowed to participate in national science and technology projects, he said.
China has been trying several measures to keep the economy floating and struggling to keep the growth rate steady. It has moderated its economic growth forecast for 2017 to "around 6.5 per cent" from the 6.7-7 per cent it had targeted last year.
This year's target is below expectations and signals that China is likely to embrace risk-control over short-term growth. Last year, China achieved a full-year growth of 6.7 per cent - its weakest since the 1990s.
(with inputs from PTI)