General

Since March, the ups and downs of the epidemic have had a certain impact on my country's economy, and the economy has faced new downward pressure. Some people use this to hype, saying that the development prospects of multinational companies in China are not optimistic, and the importance of China to multinational companies will be weakened. This argument does not stand up to scrutiny. On the contrary, China's importance to multinational corporations has grown unabated, and an investment in China is an investment in the future.

We must use a comprehensive and long-term perspective to look at problems, and past history can provide important lessons.

In 2003, the SARS epidemic hit China, affecting the progress of more than 500 foreign-invested projects, with a total amount exceeding US$10 billion. It was claimed at the time that China's favorable situation of attracting foreign investment, driven by its WTO accession, would be reversed. Nobel laureate in economics Robert Mundell dismissed this claim at the time. He said that the impact of SARS on foreign companies in China was short-lived and limited, while China's advantages in labor and other aspects were stable for a long time.

It turned out to be so. In the past 20 years, a large number of multinational companies have invested in China to expand production, and have gained a lot. The shadow of SARS has long been a small wave in the tide of history.

Since 2001, China's economic aggregate has risen from the sixth to the second in the world, the global share of GDP has increased from 4% to 18%, the trade in goods has risen from the sixth in the world to the first, and the trade in services has risen from the world's No. 1 Eleven rose to second place. China is already a well-deserved protagonist of the world economy.

Entering the new era, China has broader development prospects, more prominent development advantages, closer ties with multinational companies, and a more prominent role in the global supply chain industry chain than at any other time in history.

Multinational corporations are the promoters and beneficiaries of economic globalization. Through the internationalization of production, technology, services and capital, multinational corporations allocate resources on a global scale to maximize profits. Multinational companies can achieve better development only by embracing globalization, and embracing globalization must embrace China and the Chinese market.

Despite the impact of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth have not changed, and the determination to expand opening up has not been shaken. The role of the Chinese market in the development of multinational companies will become more and more prominent. First of all, the huge Chinese market still has strong growth potential. A large number of multinational companies have continuously increased their business performance in China, and some companies even account for 50%. With the continuous improvement of China's per capita consumption capacity, the continuous release of consumption potential, and the continuous upgrading of consumption structure, multinational companies operating in China will also usher in a broad market space. Secondly, China's super-large market and constantly enriched R&D resources will help MNCs reduce R&D costs, provide rich application scenarios for MNCs' R&D innovation activities, and promote the transformation of MNCs' R&D achievements. More and more multinational companies have recognized this and increased their R&D investment in China. In addition, China has firmly expanded its opening to the outside world, and actively integrated into the global economy by joining the RCEP, which provides more space for multinational companies to further improve the efficiency of resource allocation.

Facing the future, the fundamentals of China's economy with strong resilience, ample potential and long-term improvement remain unchanged. China will continue to deepen reforms, expand opening up, and create a market-oriented, law-based and international business environment, and provide more opportunities for companies from all over the world to invest and start businesses in China.

According to the latest report released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, in the first quarter of this year, 71% of the foreign-invested enterprises surveyed maintained their business scale, 16.4% expanded their business scale, and 72.1% increased their capital in China by more than 5%. These data show that foreign-funded enterprises generally have a clear and firm understanding of insisting on developing in China. Recently, the central and local governments at all levels have introduced targeted policies and measures to help enterprises solve the difficulties in resuming work and production, which has enhanced the confidence of multinational companies in "catching up with the annual sales target".

Facts will prove that those multinational companies that actively embrace China will reap huge returns. Investing in China is investing in the future.