China announced Wednesday a regulation to standardize and encourage the establishment of joint venture enterprises by overseas investors.

According to the regulation, which will take effect from March next year, the government is to encourage overseas investors with advanced technology and management experience to set up joint ventures in an effort to promote the development of industries such as the modern service sector.

The regulation defines those joint venture enterprises as those set up by more than two overseas investors or by an overseas investor and a Chinese investor.

The regulation, issued by the State Council, the cabinet, covers both enterprise and individual investors.

It also applies to investors from the Hong Kong special administrative region (SAR), Macao SAR and Taiwan.

The amount of foreign direct investment into China rose for the third consecutive month in October, up 5.7 percent year-on-year to $7.1 billion, according to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.