At present, the world is undergoing profound changes unseen in a century. Facing the increasingly severe and complex situation, China's foreign investment and cooperation continue to maintain steady development, and the situation is better than expected. Recently, the Ministry of Ecology and Environment and the Ministry of Commerce issued the "Guidelines for Ecological Environmental Protection of Foreign Investment Cooperation and Construction Projects". The original "Guidelines for Environmental Protection of Foreign Investment and Cooperation" (Shang He Han [2013] No. 74) was revised to further optimize the environmental management of foreign investment and cooperation construction projects in the following aspects.

The first is to further clarify the scope of application. The Guidelines are applicable to new (including reconstruction and expansion) projects, acquisitions and mergers, and contracted projects that Chinese enterprises invest and construct overseas. The above-mentioned types of projects can refer to this Guide when carrying out ecological environment management work.

The second is to further enrich the connotation. The "Guide" provides guidelines for foreign investment, cooperation and construction projects in various fields such as pollution prevention and control, climate change response, ecosystem and biodiversity protection.

The third is to straighten out the project life cycle management process. According to the main links before project investment and construction, construction period, operation period, closing and exit, etc., the "Guide" adjusts and supplements relevant regulations.

The fourth is to further improve the environmental management level of overseas projects. The "Guide" encourages projects to adopt internationally accepted standards or China's stricter standards to carry out work related to ecological environmental protection, and proposes to enterprises to improve internal environmental management systems, encourage cleaner production, and strengthen information release, etc. requirements, emphasizing the main responsibility of corporate environmental management.

The revised "Guide" can further regulate the environmental protection behavior of enterprises in foreign investment and cooperation, and will play a positive role in promoting the sustainable development of foreign investment and cooperation and the construction of a green Belt and Road. Editor / Xu Shengpeng