Apple is one step closer to opening stores in India after the country’s government on Monday moved to ease restrictions on foreign investment.

Among the changes announced by the government on Monday is the relaxation of requirements that previously mandated at least 30 percent of components would have to be sourced locally before a foreign company could open its doors in India.

Under the new rules, single-brand retailers will have three years to operate their stores before they have to meet the local sourcing standard. The government said single-brand retailers offering “state-of-art” and “cutting-edge” technologies will receive an additional five years to come into compliance.

The country has also loosened restrictions on broadcasting carriage services, allowing for 100 percent foreign direct investment (FDI).

According to Monday’s release, the decision to liberalize the country’s foreign investment policies came at a “high-level meeting chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.” The release said the policy changes make India the “most open economy in the world for FDI.”

The release said the reforms are aimed at drawing in foreign investors to spur job creation in India.

The changes come nearly a month after Apple CEO Tim Cook met with Modi to lay out Apple’s plan for the Indian market.

Commerce Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Monday Apple, which has been attempting to secure permission to open its first retail stores in the country, will have to reapply for permission to set up shop in India under the new rules, Bloomberg reported. The company was recently denied permission to sell refurbished iPhones in India.

Apple is hoping to gain a foothold in India to help boost iPhone figures in the wake of its first sales decline in more than a decade. India is on track to become the second-largest smartphone market in the world even in the face of an overall smartphone slowdown.

According to Gartner, sales growth for smartphones in India is forecast to hit 29 percent in 2016 and exhibit double-digit growth over the next two years. That forecast was backed up by International Data Corporation (IDC), which also said smartphone shipments to India are expected to grow at double-digit rates this year.

IDC said 25.6 million smartphones were shipped to India in the fourth quarter 2015 and 103.6 million were shipped to India during the full year 2015.