BEIJING, July 17 -- China should improve its investment and market environment, accelerate opening up to the outside world and lower operating costs, Chinese President Xi Jinping said Monday.

The country should "create a stable, fair, transparent and predictable business environment, and speed up efforts to build an open economy in a bid to promote the sustainable and healthy development of the Chinese economy," Xi said at a meeting of the Central Leading Group on Finance and Economic Affairs.

An important goal of building an open economy is to stimulate improvement of domestic institutions and laws for higher efficiency and greater competitive strength in the global market, said the president.

Foreign investment has played a significant role in China's economic development, promoting reasonable allocation of resources and driving market-oriented reforms, he told the meeting.

China should continue to make good use of foreign investment to advance supply-side structural reforms, upgrade the economy, and catch up with global technology development, Xi said.

He urged faster efforts to lift restrictions on foreign access to and ownership in sectors such as child care, elderly care, architectural design, accounting, auditing, commerce, logistics, e-commerce, general manufacturing and services.

The "negative list" approach on foreign investment management, which has been adopted in the country's pilot free trade zones, should be expanded to the whole nation as soon as possible, he said.

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