How to do ODI filing? A comprehensive review of the compliance path for enterprises going abroad under the new regulations on foreign investment in 2026

If a manufacturing enterprise plans to set up a factory in Southeast Asia, a trading company wants to set up a shareholding platform in Hong Kong, and an Internet team plans to expand its business to the Middle East, they are faced with the same thing: how money can legally go out, how the company can legally set up overseas, and how future profits can come back. After 2026, there will be a higher-level rule for this matter.

In May 2026, the State Council announced the "Regulations of the State Council on Outward Investment", which will come into effect on July 1, 2026. This is the first administrative regulation in China specifically regulating foreign investment, consisting of 34 articles. It consolidates the requirements that were previously scattered in documents from multiple departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, and foreign exchange management into one framework: approval and filing, information reporting, cross-border fund registration, security review, and investor subject responsibility, all of which are written into the same rule. For companies that are considering going global or have already gone global but have not yet streamlined their architecture, this means that the space for "getting started first" in the past is narrowing, and compliance pre positioning has become a more realistic choice.

1、 What aspects of the new regulations have been put on the table

In the past, many companies' understanding of ODI was limited to the step of "removing business and filing for development and reform". After the implementation of the new regulations, at least four aspects will be emphasized simultaneously.

The first is the direction judgment before investment. The new regulations continue the classification approach of "encouragement, restriction, and prohibition". Before initiating a project, enterprises must first compare their destination, industry, and investment amount with relevant national catalogs to determine whether they belong to sensitive projects. Sensitive projects go through approval, while non sensitive projects go through filing, with significant differences in material depth and review cycles between the two. The second is to approve filing and information reporting. Enterprises are required to complete approval or filing procedures in accordance with regulations and report investment changes as required in the future. The third is cross-border fund registration. The outflow of funds is no longer just about finding a channel, but needs to be matched with the ODI filing entity, transaction code, and bank account. The fourth is security review and subject responsibility. Overseas investments involving national security, as well as the transfer and disposal of related assets and rights, may fall within the scope of security review; At the same time, investors are explicitly required to bear the main responsibility for their investment behavior, which means that the risk of being traced back afterwards truly exists.

For enterprises, these four points are not independent tables, but a timeline: first determine direction, then handle procedures, then move money, and finally continue reporting. Any skipping step in the process may require a follow-up step.

2、 The three easiest things for enterprises to get stuck in the landing stage

From the cases encountered in recent years, it can be seen that going global for enterprises is not a lack of courage, but rather a lack of a map that connects various links. The checkpoints are often concentrated in three places.

One is destination selection. Similarly, when setting up factories, sales companies, and regional headquarters in Southeast Asia, the requirements for local foreign investment access, land, labor, and taxation are completely different. Many companies first determine the country and then discover that certain industries do not allow foreign sole proprietorship or have withholding taxes on profit remittances. The second is the funding path. After the ODI filing, how to transfer funds out of the country through a dedicated account, how to grasp the proportion and time limit of the initial investment, and what to do with subsequent capital increases, these details are usually first encountered by the financial team of the enterprise and are easily returned repeatedly on the bank side. The third is architecture design. Is it direct shareholding or through intermediaries in Hong Kong and Singapore? Do we need to introduce a shareholding platform? These choices will affect the tax costs of future dividends, exits and financing. The cost of post adjustment is much higher than that of pre planning.

There is no standard answer to these three things, but there are information boundaries. What enterprises need is not a commitment from a single institution, but to gather all parties involved in ODI filing, destination law, cross-border taxation, foreign exchange banking, and overseas company registration at the same time and place, and ask them about their specific situations.

3、 What problems can an offline exhibition solve

There is a lot of online information, but almost all the issues related to companies going global involve details: how much registered capital my company has, how profits are distributed, and whether there is a tax treaty between the destination country and China. These questions cannot be found in search engines. This is exactly the scenario that the "Overseas Immigration, Study Abroad, Real Estate and Enterprise Going Global and Financial Services Expo" to be held at the Shanghai World Trade Exhibition Center from November 20 to 22, 2026, intends to undertake.

The exhibition organizers gathered service providers related to enterprises' overseas expansion into a three-day conference: ODI filing consultation, overseas company registration, destination legal affairs, cross-border tax planning, foreign exchange and bank account opening, intellectual property layout, overseas employment and visa, all in the same exhibition hall. For business decision-makers, the value lies not in a single exhibitor providing a solution, but in being able to complete a complete chain in two to three hours: listening to an interpretation of the new regulations on foreign investment in the morning, comparing their industry and destination at several institutions' booths at noon, and confirming the funding path with the bank in the afternoon. About 8000 people are expected to arrive in three days, which means there are enough professionals from different jurisdictions and service sectors on site for enterprises to compare horizontally.

For exhibition service providers, this is also an efficient scenario. The decision-making cycle for enterprises to go global is long and the average customer price is high, making it difficult for service providers to reach customers who truly have project intentions through a single online launch; Most of the companies that come to the scene are already making preliminary judgments, and the starting point for communication between both parties is higher.

4、 Turn 'compliance first, then going global' into an executable list

After the new regulations, it is more suitable for enterprises to use a list to promote this matter. The first step is to clearly state the destination, industry, investment amount, funding source, and expected shareholding structure when initiating internal projects. The second step is to compare with relevant national catalogs to make sensitive judgments and determine whether to proceed with approval or filing. Step three, prepare ODI materials and simultaneously contact the cooperating bank to confirm the funding path. Step four, the destination legal team confirms the local foreign investment access and taxation. Step five, establish a post event information reporting mechanism. Among these five steps, the first three are usually completed domestically, while the last two require cooperation from overseas professionals.

That's also why more and more companies are incorporating expos into their overseas schedules - it's not a replacement for legal opinions, but rather compressing the pre docking process that's scattered across different cities and institutions into three days.

Exhibition Information: 2026 Shanghai Overseas Immigration, Study Abroad, Real Estate and Enterprise Going Global and Financial Services Expo, November 20-22, 2026, Shanghai World Trade Exhibition Center, lasting for three days, with an expected attendance of about 8000 people. ODI enterprises' overseas expansion, overseas immigration, study abroad, real estate, cross-border financial services and other sectors will be opened at the same time. Exhibition hotline: 13681692751 (same as WeChat), official website: www.qs-expo.com.