China has eased market entry rules to welcome more foreign investment in Beijing’s service sector. Industries involved include travel, aircraft maintenance and event promotion, Chinese state-run news agency Xinhua reported.

China’s State Council made the announcement on Tuesday. It added the new rules would remain in force until May 5, 2018.

According to Xinhua, travel agencies with joint Chinese and foreign capitals will be allowed to provide services to Chinese traveling abroad and to Hong Kong and Macao.

Operators wholly foreign-owned will from now on be allowed to operate aircraft maintenance projects in Beijing. So far, only Chinese-controlled operators were able to run this business in the municipality.

The rules were relaxed following an announcement by China’s Central Government in May saying Beijing would pilot policies to open the service sector wider to foreign investment. If successful in the Chinese capital, the loosen regulation could be applied nationwide, said Liu Haiquan, an official with the Ministry of Commerce.

Official data quoted by Xinhua showed Beijing attracted foreign investment contracts worth US$27.11 billion in the first nine months of 2015.

Nationwide, the value added of the service sector in the nine months to September 30 accounted for 51.4 percent of the nation’s gross domestic product, up by 2.3 percentage points from a year earlier.