General

New forces in international trade! The super-large market and complete production and supply chain network make China a hot investment land favored by foreign enterprises. This year's government work report put forward that "we should make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital. We should expand market access and strengthen the opening up of modern service industries. We should implement the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises." "We should do a good job in the service of foreign-funded enterprises and promote the implementation and construction of landmark projects for foreign investment. The opening of China's large market will certainly provide more opportunities for enterprises of all countries to develop in China.".

"Foreign-funded enterprises are an important participant in China's accelerating the construction of a new development pattern with the domestic big cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycle promoting each other. Greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital are important measures to implement the more proactive opening strategy of the 20th CPC National Congress." Hou Lei, associate researcher of the Institute of World Economics and Politics and deputy director of the International Development Research Office of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that at present, The recovery of the world economy is weak, the trend of anti-globalization is rising, and unilateralism and protectionism are rising significantly. We should actively do a good job in foreign investment, adhere to the promotion of high-level opening up, and adhere to mutual benefit, win-win, open and sharing. It is of great significance to promote the liberalization and facilitation of international trade and investment, and promote economic globalization. It also shows our mission as a responsible big country.

Xu Mingqi, vice president of the Shanghai International Economic Exchange Center, said that China has always attached importance to the role of foreign capital in China's economic growth and industrial upgrading, and has constantly attracted and utilized foreign capital by expanding opening up, improving the level of opening up and improving the business environment. Influenced by the impact of the epidemic and the one-sided propaganda of some overseas media, some foreign enterprises misunderstand the environment for China to attract foreign investment after the epidemic. The Foreign Investment Law, which was formally implemented in 2020, gives full pre-entry national treatment to foreign investors, and the policies of expanding the opening of China's service industry have not yet received the due attention of some overseas media and investors. They still do not fully understand that these new institutional construction to improve the opening level in China will bring them more business opportunities. "This year's government work report proposes that greater efforts should be made to attract and utilize foreign capital, which is very targeted and of great significance to China's economic development."

In recent years, China has made new progress in opening up. According to the latest data of the Ministry of Commerce, the actual amount of foreign capital used nationwide in January this year reached 127.69 billion yuan, up 14.5% year on year. In 2022, China's actual use of foreign capital exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan for the first time, an increase of 6.3% year on year, and the scale of attracting foreign capital remained at the forefront of the world.

On March 2, at the press conference held by the State Council Information Office, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said that this year the Ministry of Commerce will mainly hold the "Year of Investment in China" series activities. In promoting a higher level of opening up, the Ministry of Commerce will study and promote the rational reduction of the negative list of foreign investment access, further cancel or relax the restrictions on foreign investment access, promote greater efforts and a higher level of opening up, and steadily promote institutional opening up.

In terms of the implementation of attracting and utilizing foreign capital, the interviewed experts also put forward relevant suggestions. Chen Zhaoyuan, an assistant researcher at the Institute of World Economics and Politics of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, believes that we should continue to focus on "stabilizing the stock, expanding the quantity and improving the quality", continue to optimize our business environment, actively participate in international investment governance, and properly and efficiently respond to the concerns of foreign-funded enterprises in international trade.

"Specifically, the first is to strengthen the opening up of the modern service industry. We will break down local protectionism and industrial barriers, explore ways to relax the restrictions on foreign investment access in finance, telecommunications, data and other fields, and optimize the regional and industrial layout of foreign investment. We will implement the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises, build a fairer market competition environment, and improve the compliance and transparency of relevant policies. The second is to actively participate in international investment governance A high-level trade and investment agreement will improve the level of international trade and investment facilitation, and lead to improve the international trade and investment dispute settlement mechanism. Third, do a good job in the service of foreign-funded enterprises. We will improve the communication and feedback mechanism with foreign-funded enterprises and foreign business associations, and efficiently solve problems of concern to foreign enterprises in accordance with laws and regulations. We will improve the special mechanism for key foreign-funded projects and strengthen the coordination between the central and local governments in the process of project promotion. " Chen Zhaoyuan said.