Industrial Policy & Trade Monitor· 2665 actions· ✨ 90 recent

China's Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Commerce, People's Bank of China and National Financial Regulatory Administration jointly issued Cai Jin [2026] No. 5 on 2026-01-19, optimizing the service-sector loan interest-subsidy policy first launched in August 2025 (Cai Jin [2025] No. 81). The notice extends the scheme through 2026-12-31, raises the per-entity eligible new-loan cap for 2026 to RMB 10 million (subsidy period capped at one year, annual subsidy rate of 1 percentage point, funded 90% by central and 10% by provincial finances), and widens covered sectors from the original eight (catering/accommodation, health, eldercare, childcare, domestic services, culture/entertainment, tourism, sports) to add digital, green and retail categories. It also expands the roster of handling banks to a longer list of state and joint-stock commercial banks.

Cyprus Law 194(I)/2025 "The Establishment of a Framework for the Screening of Foreign Direct Investments Law of 2025" was enacted by the House of Representatives and published in the Official Gazette on 14 November 2025, entering into force on 2 April 2026. It establishes Cyprus's first-ever mandatory pre-approval FDI screening regime, designating the Ministry of Finance as the competent Screening Authority and applying to non-EU/EEA/Swiss investors acquiring ≥25% equity or voting rights in Cyprus entities valued at ≥€2 million across covered strategic sectors. The regime implements EU Regulation 2019/452 and includes a Cyprus-specific sectoral extension covering tourism and real estate — addressing golden-passport-era concerns about non-EU capital flows into the island's financial and hospitality economy.

On 4 November 2025, Export-Import Bank of Malaysia Berhad (EXIM Bank), a Malaysian government-owned export credit agency, extended a USD 70 million Islamic Overseas Investment Financing facility to Berjaya Okinawa Investment (S) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Berjaya Land Berhad, to support construction of the Four Seasons Resort & Private Residences Okinawa in Japan. The facility is state-linked outbound-investment support extending EXIM Bank's decade-long financing relationship with the Berjaya Group and is logged by Global Trade Alert as a "certainly harmful" financial assistance intervention supporting a Malaysian firm's expansion abroad.

The U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) designated the Bhardwaj Human Smuggling Organization (Bhardwaj HSO), a Cancun, Mexico-based transnational criminal organization run by dual Indian-Mexican national Vikrant Bhardwaj, under Executive Order 13581 (as amended by EO 13863). The action names 21 designees in total — the organization, 4 individuals (including Bhardwaj's wife and a former Cancun airport police officer who provided access), and 16 front companies spanning Mexico, India and the UAE across real estate, construction, retail/hospitality, and tourism/transport sectors used to launder smuggling proceeds. The designation was coordinated with Homeland Security Investigations, the DEA, and Mexico's financial intelligence unit (UIF), and blocks all U.S. property and interests of the designees plus any entity 50%-or-more owned by them.

The People's Bank of China established a CNY 500 billion (~USD 69.1bn) relending facility on 9 May 2025 to encourage financial institutions to expand lending to service-consumption sectors — accommodation and catering, culture/sports/entertainment, education — and the elderly-care industry. The facility carries a 1.5% annual rate, a one-year term renewable twice (maximum three-year utilisation), and runs through end-2027. Twenty-six financial institutions are eligible, including national policy and state-owned commercial banks plus five systemically important city commercial banks; participants may draw down quarterly at 100% of qualifying loan principal, subject to PBOC post-disbursement audit.