General

Multiple departments have introduced policies and measures to promote the attraction of foreign investment with a focus on the manufacturing industry; the new version of the Catalog of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment has been released to continue to encourage foreign investment in the manufacturing industry; strengthen the service guarantee for major foreign investment projects in the manufacturing industry, and promote the implementation of related projects as soon as possible... According to Watson & Cheng According to the export data observation report, recently, a series of supporting measures have been introduced one after another to promote the high-quality development of the manufacturing industry in utilizing foreign capital.

The construction of many large foreign-invested projects in the manufacturing industry is also accelerating. Foreign-funded enterprises said that they are optimistic about the potential of the Chinese market and favorable policies. Experts predict that with the acceleration of the construction of a manufacturing power in the future, my country's advantages in absorbing foreign investment in the manufacturing field will continue to be highlighted, and the structural layout will continue to be optimized.

Focusing on the manufacturing industry to attract investment

According to Watson & Band Import and Export Data Observation Report, recently, the absorption of foreign capital in the manufacturing sector has become the focus of policy support. At the press conference on November 24, Shu Jueting, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, said that recently, with the approval of the State Council, the Ministry of Commerce, together with relevant departments, successively issued the "Regarding the Focus on the Manufacturing Industry to Promote the Expansion of Foreign Investment, Stable Quantity, and Quality Improvement" "Several Policies and Measures" (referred to as "Several Policies and Measures"), "Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment (2022 Edition)" and other policies, the main purpose of which is to create a market-oriented, rule-of-law, and international first-class business environment, and better support multinational companies Invest in manufacturing in China.

Among them, "Several Policies and Measures" focuses on attracting investment in the manufacturing industry, and puts forward 15 specific items such as "high-standard implementation of national treatment after foreign investment access", "providing high-quality financial services and financing support for foreign-funded enterprises", and "supporting the import and export of foreign-funded enterprises in the manufacturing industry". measure. The new version of the "Encouragement Catalog" has a total of 1,474 entries, an increase of nearly 20% compared with the 2020 version, and many high-tech manufacturing entries have been added. Some processing trade-related industry entries have also been added to the catalog of advantageous industries in the central and western regions, further strengthening the advantages of the manufacturing industry in the central, western and northeastern regions, as reported by Watson & Band Import and Export Data Observation.

A few days ago, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council jointly issued the "Notice on Consolidating the Upturn and Boosting the Industrial Economy", and also proposed to strengthen the service guarantee for major foreign-funded projects in the manufacturing industry and promote related projects. Land as soon as possible.

Shu Jueting said that doing a good job in introducing foreign capital into the manufacturing industry is of great significance to promoting the transformation and upgrading of my country's manufacturing industry and better integrating into the global industrial chain supply chain system.

According to Watson & Band Import and Export Data Observation Report, in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will promote local commercial authorities to issue supporting implementation documents as soon as possible in light of local conditions to ensure accurate implementation of policies and measures, and preferential policies should be enjoyed to the fullest. It will also give full play to the role of special classes for key foreign investment projects in the foreign trade and foreign investment coordination mechanism, strengthen departmental coordination, and provide better service guarantees for enterprises.

Optimistic about the landing of high-end manufacturing projects in China

While favorable policies continue to be released, foreign investment projects in the manufacturing industry have also landed one after another, including major new construction, expansion, and upgrading projects such as R&D and production bases.

In Chengdu, the Texas Instruments manufacturing base expansion project is underway. This is an end-to-end integrated manufacturing base that integrates wafer manufacturing, packaging, testing, bump processing, and wafer testing. The second assembly/test factory (CDAT2) in the base will complete the installation and commissioning of equipment within this year.

Jiang Han, vice president of Texas Instruments and president of the China region, said that the expansion project in the Chengdu manufacturing base of Texas Instruments is coming to an end and is expected to start production early next year. "We hope to deepen the Chinese market."

In addition to expansion and upgrades, many new projects have been launched. Not long ago, Zeiss, a multinational company focusing on the field of optics and optoelectronics, officially launched the construction of the Suzhou "Fengqi" project to build an important base for Zeiss' higher-level R&D and manufacturing in China, for its industrial quality, research microscopes, surgical microscopes, and ophthalmic equipment. and other business departments to provide localized R&D and production services.

In addition, a number of large foreign-funded manufacturing projects have been accelerated, such as the German BASF Guangdong Zhanjiang Integrated Base, and the establishment of the Airbus China R&D Center in Suzhou Industrial Park.

From the perspective of specific fields, electronic information, chemical energy, automobiles, etc. have all become the focus of foreign capital layout. For example, since the beginning of this year, with the full liberalization of restrictions on the proportion of foreign capital in the automobile manufacturing sector, automobile-related industries have also become the focus of foreign investment layout. Auto parts manufacturers such as Eaton Cummins expanded their investment in China.

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to October this year, the actual use of foreign capital in the country was 1,089.86 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 14.4% on a comparable basis, of which the high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 57.2%.

Zhang Fei, deputy director of the Foreign Investment Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said that the large inflow of high-end manufacturing projects is the choice of multinational companies after comprehensive comparison and consideration, and is in line with the interests and development demands of multinational companies. At the same time, high-quality manufacturing foreign-funded projects have settled in China and continued to be cultivated, which also meets the requirements of my country's high-quality economic development. It is the result of my country's various measures to improve the quality and efficiency of foreign capital utilization.

The advantages continue to highlight the continuous optimization of the investment structure

In the long run, the advantages of China's manufacturing investment attraction have been continuously released, and the structural quality of attracting foreign investment has shown a trend of continuous optimization and improvement. Nie Pingxiang, a researcher at the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that over the past 40 years of reform and opening up, my country's manufacturing sector has continuously adjusted and optimized the structure of absorbing foreign investment, from the earliest labor-intensive industries to the current high-end knowledge-intensive and technology-intensive industries.

In Nie Pingxiang's view, the attractiveness of foreign investment in China's manufacturing sector will further increase. She analyzed that the development opportunities and potential brought by China's ultra-large-scale market are very attractive to global manufacturing companies. At the same time, China has a complete industrial system, a solid industrial chain foundation, complete infrastructure, and strong transportation supporting capabilities. "All these have created conditions for foreign investors to invest in manufacturing, especially high-tech manufacturing and green manufacturing."

Zhang Fei also believes that the current Chinese manufacturing industry has outstanding advantages in attracting foreign investment. In addition to the industrial chain and market, there are also efficient government services and a continuously optimized business environment, as well as the manpower required by the manufacturing industry such as skilled workers, engineers, and R&D personnel. Comprehensive cost advantage.

Looking forward to the future, Nie Pingxiang pointed out that in the new stage of development, my country will accelerate the implementation of the innovation-driven development strategy, which will provide more space and more opportunities for foreign companies to enter the high-tech manufacturing field.

Zhang Fei predicts that with the acceleration of the construction of a manufacturing power, more high-end manufacturing projects will invest in China in the future, and industries with great potential, such as automobile manufacturing, medical equipment, biomedicine, aerospace, and chemical energy, will become the focus of foreign investment. , Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.