General

In the first year of fully implementing the spirit of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China, China's foreign investment and cooperation achieved a "good start". According to data released by the Ministry of Commerce on March 27th, China's foreign investment increased rapidly in January-February, with foreign non-financial direct investment of 136.04 billion yuan, up 35.7% year-on-year (equivalent to 19.96 billion US dollars, up 26.5% year-on-year).

"With the adjustment and optimization of China's epidemic prevention policies, this is the largest increase in China's foreign investment in the past five years, reflecting the increased confidence of Chinese enterprises in the international trade market, and the significant increase in their enthusiasm for 'going global'. At the same time, it also indicates that with the upgrading of China's industrial chain status, Chinese enterprises have an urgent need for foreign investment, hoping to integrate into the global market and participate in global competition." Zhang Shuang, an assistant researcher at the Institute of Foreign Investment and Cooperation of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, explained in an interview with a reporter.

Industry insiders generally expect that driven by the dual opportunities of the market and policy, China's foreign direct investment is expected to continue to maintain a steady and progressive growth trend this year.

Maintain a steady and progressive growth trend

According to data, from the perspective of investment, from January to February, it flowed to the leasing and business services industry of 4.72 billion US dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 22.3%; The flow to the wholesale and retail industries was 4.09 billion US dollars, up 17.2% year-on-year; Investment flows to manufacturing, construction, and other fields have also shown a growth trend.

Zhang Shuang stated that foreign direct investment in traditional industries has achieved a significant growth, especially in services such as leasing and business services, wholesale and retail industries, which have the fastest growth rate. On the one hand, this is in line with the general trend of the transformation of the world economy into a service-oriented economy, and on the other hand, it is closely related to China's major initiatives to promote the high-level opening up of the service industry.

From the perspective of investment distribution, the non-financial direct investment of Chinese enterprises in the countries along the the Belt and Road in the first two months was US $4.04 billion, up 27.8% year on year, accounting for 20.2% of the total amount in the same period, highlighting the driving role of the the Belt and Road in expanding new growth space.

This year marks the tenth anniversary of the "the Belt and Road" initiative. Over the past decade, the joint construction of the "the Belt and Road" has achieved remarkable achievements. Many international institutions believe that China's role as the main engine of the global economy has not changed, and they expect China's economy to inject new momentum into the world economic recovery while achieving high-quality development.

Zhang Shuang said: "In the past three years, countries hit by the epidemic need to boost their economies and get out of the haze of the epidemic by participating in the joint construction of the the Belt and Road. China's efforts to promote institutional opening also need to take the joint construction of the the Belt and Road as a platform and starting point, so that the construction of the the Belt and Road will become an important experimental field for implementing innovative international trade and trade rules and standards. Therefore, from the perspective of the international environment and domestic demand, participating in the joint construction of the international The "the Belt and Road" trade will provide more market opportunities and space for enterprises to carry out overseas investment. "

"This year, China's foreign direct investment is expected to continue to maintain a steady and progressive growth trend." Zhang Shuang's reason for making this prediction is that with the further development of the new round of technological revolution and industrial transformation, and the accelerated evolution of green rules in international trade and investment, the Ministry of Commerce and other departments have successively printed and issued policy documents such as the "Guidelines for the Green Development of Foreign Investment Cooperation" and "Guidelines for the Work of Foreign Investment Cooperation in the Digital Economy", The digital and green transformation will be the "dual engines" that will boost the future foreign investment and cooperation of Chinese enterprises. In addition, high-quality open platforms such as the "the Belt and Road", the economic and trade agreement represented by RCEP, and cross-border economic cooperation zones will provide more opportunities and policy dividends for enterprises to carry out overseas investment cooperation.

Promote enterprises to "go global" more steadily

How to promote high-quality development of foreign investment and cooperation in the new situation?

In the clear view of the chief economist of CITIC Securities, this year, to maintain and expand trade partnerships or become an important part of promoting the high-quality development of China's foreign investment cooperation, China's investment cooperation with countries and regions along the "the Belt and Road" and RCEP members will achieve further development.

This is evidenced by the "Survey Report on the Current Situation and Intention of Chinese Enterprises' Foreign Investment in 2022" recently released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade. According to the survey, more than 70% of the surveyed enterprises maintain or expand their existing foreign investment scale, more than 80% of the enterprises are optimistic about the future development prospects of foreign investment, and about 90% of the enterprises are optimistic about investment opportunities in RCEP countries.

However, it cannot be ignored that there are still risks and adverse factors such as high overseas winds and surging waves, surging undercurrents, rising risks of global economic recession, complex geopolitical situations, and increased uncertainty in the international trade environment, which test the survival and development wisdom of every "going out" enterprise, especially its ability to participate in the reshaping and localization of global industrial chain supply chains.

Zhang Xiaodong, General Manager of Hisense International Marketing Supply Chain Management Department, has many years of experience in supply chain industry. He admitted that in the past two years, "going to sea" has encountered many challenges. Currently, he is leading the implementation of Hisense's supply chain informatization transformation project, which is a new action for enterprises to respond to the test.

"Previously, the overseas supply chain may only be a narrow sense of manufacturing base or processing plant. Now, the supply chain requires end-to-end capabilities. This chain starts with consumer demand forecasting at the front-end, ends with product delivery and inventory management at the terminal, and even manages sales budgets and purchase plans with the market front-end, domestic and foreign production bases and their headquarters." Zhang Xiaodong said. Zhang Shuang proposed suggestions from both government and enterprise levels: the government should continue to improve the management system and mechanism of foreign investment, and promote management reform; Build more international cooperation platforms and build a "going global" financial support system; Guide enterprise investment to serve the new development pattern, emphasize compliance management, fulfill social responsibilities, and practice the win-win cooperation concept; Do a good job of supervision during and after the event of foreign investment, and strengthen the prevention and control of overseas risks.

"Enterprises should strengthen their research and judgment on the international situation and the investment environment of the host country, and invest prudently on the basis of sufficient research. At the same time, they should strengthen their own technological and management innovation, improve their core competitiveness, and strive to promote Chinese standards' going global ', in order to enhance their industry chain status and international discourse power, and achieve a higher level of investment returns." Zhang Shuang said.