China has launched a series of changes to the rules regarding permanent residence for foreigners, Xinhua reported.

According to a plan issued by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS), the “foreigner's permanent residence card” will be renamed as the “foreigner's permanent residence identity card.”

Similar to the identity cards used by Chinese citizens, foreigners' identity information will be embedded in the chips on the machine-readable cards, to be shared by railways, airlines, insurance agencies, hotels and banks.

The related technical work is expected to be finished by June, and then foreigners can apply for new cards.

In 2016, 1,576 foreigners became permanent residents in China, an increase of 163 percent over the previous year, according to the MPS.

China has made huge progress in easing its residence and entry policies for foreigners since September 2015, which has helped attract more talent from overseas and boosted international exchanges.