General

New trends in international trade! From the Central Economic Work Conference held at the end of last year to the government work report submitted for consideration this year, the important deployment of "more efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital" has been repeatedly emphasized, which is also one of the six major tasks of the Ministry of Commerce this year.

"We will expand market access and increase the opening of the modern service sector. We will implement the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises. We will actively promote the accession to high-level economic and trade agreements such as the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP), and take the initiative to steadily expand institutional openness in accordance with relevant rules, regulations, management, and standards." "We will do a good job in the service of foreign-funded enterprises and promote the implementation and construction of landmark projects for foreign investment." ... The government work report reflects the policy dividend and development opportunities everywhere, conveys China's firm determination to open the door wider and wider, and arouses strong response and resonance from representatives and foreign-funded enterprises both inside and outside the venue of this year's NPC and CPPCC.

Relax market access,

Improve the quality and level of foreign capital utilization

In the past five years, China has actively and effectively utilized foreign capital and continued to relax its market access for foreign capital. The number of negative lists in the national and pilot free trade zones has been reduced by 51% and 72% respectively. A number of large foreign investment projects have been launched, and China has continued to become a hot spot for foreign investment.

According to the statistics of the Ministry of Commerce, on the basis of double-digit growth in 2021, China's actual use of foreign capital in 2022 exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan in RMB for the first time, with a year-on-year increase of 6.3%, and the scale of foreign investment reached a new record. In January of this year, China actually used 127.69 billion yuan of foreign capital, up 14.5% year on year, achieving a "good start".

"We can see that the 'slimming' of the negative list is very effective," said Yu Miaojie, deputy to the National People's Congress and president of Liaoning University, in an interview.

Talking about how to continuously improve the quality and level of foreign capital utilization and better promote the implementation and construction of foreign capital landmark projects, Yu Miaojie said that on the one hand, we should further reduce the entry threshold for foreign capital, on the other hand, we should strive to reduce the number and types of negative lists. Shorten the administrative approval process and reduce the negative list from two angles.

In addition, Yu Miaojie believes that we should actively innovate the way of opening up, strengthen the service of foreign capital promotion, and increase the investment attraction and the relay degree of projects through the free trade pilot zone, Hainan Free Trade Port and other open frontier areas. "The goal of project docking is often to introduce landmark large projects, do a good job in the service of foreign-funded enterprises, and promote the quality and quantity of attracting foreign capital to a new level."

On the eve of the National People's Congress and the National People's Congress this year, Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao said at the press conference of the National Development and Reform Office that the Ministry of Commerce will make greater efforts to promote investment, improve services, expand openness and optimize the environment, and strive to keep high-quality foreign capital in stock and bring in more high-quality foreign capital.

During the two sessions of the National People's Congress this year, the representative members actively made suggestions and suggestions on how to promote the stable stock and expansion of foreign capital. Jiang Ying, member of the CPPCC National Committee and chairman of Deloitte China, brought the Proposal on Optimizing the Innovation Environment and Accelerating the Integration of Foreign R&D Centers into China's Innovation System.

In recent years, China's high-level opening to the outside world has continued to advance, and the domestic innovative R&D resources and talent reserves have become increasingly rich, which has a strong attraction for foreign enterprises to carry out R&D activities in China, and the quality of foreign capital utilization has been increasingly improved. In January of this year, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology jointly issued 16 measures, including strengthening the guidance on the application of foreign R&D centers to identify high-tech enterprises, and providing more efficient and accurate services for their establishment and operation.

"Foreign R&D centers have strong innovation capabilities in basic frontier fields, which not only promote the high-quality development of foreign capital, but also play an important role in promoting China's scientific and technological innovation. In this context, we should further identify the deep development demands of foreign R&D centers, enhance their R&D stickiness in China, and encourage them to 'innovate with China'." Jiang Ying said.

In her proposal, she put forward three suggestions: First, the national standards for the review of the external transfer of intellectual property rights should be issued as soon as possible to ensure that the unified standards are implemented in different regions. Second, we will accelerate the improvement of the special policies for foreign R&D centers in the central and western regions, and guide foreign investors to set up R&D centers in the central and western regions. Third, smooth the participation channels of foreign enterprises in government science and technology projects and financial subsidies, build a platform for industry-university-research cooperation, improve the efficiency of the implementation and transformation of scientific and technological achievements, and promote the integration of foreign enterprises into the local innovation chain.

Optimize the investment environment,

China market is a must

China's strong economic resilience, great potential, continuously optimized business environment, and the introduction and implementation of a series of favorable policies have injected impetus into the investment of global enterprises in China and consolidated their confidence and determination to take root in China.

"China has always adhered to the expansion of opening up, continued to improve the business environment, increased the protection of intellectual property rights, and promoted high-quality development with the digital economy and low-carbon transformation as the strategic direction. These measures have created good opportunities for Schneider Electric's development in China, and strengthened our confidence in taking root in China for a long time." Yin Zheng, executive vice president of Schneider Electric and president of China and East Asia, told reporters.

In recent years, in the face of the trend of multi-polarization in the world, Schneider Electric has continued to increase its investment in China and strengthen the construction of "China Center", benefiting from the continuous development and expansion of the Chinese market. "In the past few years, Schneider Electric's R&D investment in China has increased by more than 15% every year. In the past four months alone, two R&D centers and a world-class laboratory have been established in China. China has become Schneider Electric's second largest market in the world, the largest supply chain base and one of the four R&D bases in the world, and is also an important source of innovation." Yin Zheng said.

Accelerating the creation of an international first-class business environment is also the focus of many delegates and members during this year's NPC and CPPCC sessions.

"Foreign investment is still very optimistic about China's economic development, and China's super-scale market advantages and potential are very attractive to foreign investment. The urgent task is to further optimize and improve the business environment and enhance the confidence of foreign enterprises in China's development, which will help them determine their expectations for long-term investment in China, and also allow foreign enterprises to fully share China's market opportunities." The NPC representative and the secretary of the Party Committee of the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences weighed and said.

On balance, we have always emphasized creating a market-oriented, law-based and international business environment, and benchmarking the highest international standards and the best level. "In the future, the 'facilitation' of the business environment should also be placed in a more important position, which is crucial to stimulate market vitality, boost market confidence and stabilize market expectations."

At the same time, the balance said that some positive exploration practices and experience practices should also be further legalized and standardized, such as the revision and improvement of relevant laws and regulations in international trade and foreign-related fields, and the acceleration of reform and innovation, including the "single window" of international trade, and the coordination of relevant government departments and institutions, the sharing of resource information, the reduction of transaction costs, and the improvement of management efficiency, To further guide the expectations of market participants.

Jiang Ying also said in an interview with reporters that she expected more new measures with the characteristics of reform and opening up to be implemented in the future, from improving the basic system of market economy such as property rights protection, market access and fair competition, to promoting institutional openness such as rules, regulations, management and standards, promoting the orderly and free flow of international trade elements, and building an open economic power.

Huang Maoxing, a deputy to the National People's Congress and vice president of the Fujian Academy of Social Sciences, is confident that China will attract foreign investment and inject new vitality into the world economy in the future: "The continuous enhancement of supply-side industrial support, the continuous expansion of consumer market space, and the continuous optimization of the business environment indicate China's firm determination to open up international trade, which will make the Chinese market more attractive to foreign investment."

As Wang Wentao said, "In the long run, China's market is a must for enterprises."