General

According to customs data, from January to October, China's foreign non-financial direct investment was 627.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%; equivalent to 94.36 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%.

According to customs data, from January to October, China's foreign non-financial direct investment was 627.4 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.3%; equivalent to 94.36 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 7.3%.

Talking about the reasons for the growth of China's foreign investment, Lu Yue, a professor at the National (Beijing) Institute of Opening-up at the University of International Business and Economics, believes that, on the one hand, China is vigorously developing the modern service industry and encouraging Chinese companies with comparative advantages to invest, merge, and share On the other hand, the pace of transformation and upgrading of traditional industries in various countries continues to accelerate, and the demand for investment in various types of professional leasing and business services such as enterprise management services, consulting and investigation services is growing.

It is noteworthy that, while the overall scale keeps growing, the trend of continuous optimization of China's foreign investment structure is becoming more and more obvious.

Recently, the "2021 Statistical Bulletin on China's Foreign Direct Investment" released by the Ministry of Commerce shows that China's foreign direct investment in 2021 presents five characteristics, including the continuous optimization of the investment structure. In 2021, China's foreign direct investment covers 18 major industries of the national economy. Among them, 80% of the investment flowed into leasing and business services, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, finance, and transportation, with flows exceeding US$10 billion. Customs data shows that by the end of 2021, the stock of foreign investment in leasing and business services, wholesale and retail, finance, manufacturing and other industries will exceed US$100 billion.

This trend has continued this year. According to customs data, from January to October, China's investment in leasing and business services reached US$32.08 billion, a year-on-year increase of 22.2%; investment in manufacturing, wholesale and retail, construction and other fields all showed growth.

"The optimization of industrial structure is a major manifestation of the optimization of my country's foreign investment structure." Lu Yue said that foreign investment mainly flows to leasing and business services, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, finance, transportation and other fields. The reasons are: first, the global value chain Restructuring is accelerated, and high-end services represented by R&D, marketing, and branding are increasingly taking a leading position in the core of the global value chain. The demand for investment in the service industry in the international market continues to rise, so the demand for foreign investment in the above fields is huge. Second, China is accelerating the transformation and upgrading of the manufacturing industry, and has carried out extensive international investment cooperation around productive service industries such as R&D and innovation, commercial leasing, and financial insurance, which has promoted the further optimization of the structure of foreign investment. The third is that some host countries are relatively backward in emerging technologies and infrastructure, while Chinese companies have outstanding advantages in 5G, high-speed rail construction and other fields, and can provide them with infrastructure construction and technical support to promote host countries to improve production levels and innovation capabilities.

In Lu Yue's view, in the future, under the background that countries are committed to developing producer services and promoting industrial transformation and upgrading, Chinese enterprises will carry out key investment cooperation in the fields of leasing and business services, manufacturing, wholesale and retail. , will still maintain a steady development trend.

In fact, in addition to leasing and business services, wholesale and retail, manufacturing, finance, transportation and other fields, there are also some emerging investment fields that are emerging. Lv Yue gave an example that digitalization and greenization may be the potential growth direction of Chinese enterprises' overseas investment. On the one hand, as the new crown pneumonia epidemic promotes a new round of industrial digital transformation, investment demand in emerging digital technology fields such as networks, big data, and communications has grown rapidly, and may be the focus of foreign investment. On the other hand, addressing climate change has become an international consensus. Countries around the world will gradually increase their investment in the fields of green and sustainable development. Green infrastructure, green energy, green transportation, green finance and other fields will become important directions for international investment cooperation.

In addition to the optimization of the industrial structure, the continuous optimization of China's foreign investment structure is also reflected in the continuous optimization of the regional structure. As China's investment in countries along the "Belt and Road" increases, the status of the "Belt and Road" in China's foreign investment pattern continues to increase, and China's global investment layout is improving.

According to customs data, from January to October, China's non-financial direct investment in countries along the "Belt and Road" was US$17.25 billion, a year-on-year increase of 6.7%, accounting for 18.3% of the total over the same period.

"Thanks to my country's active promotion of high-quality joint construction of the 'Belt and Road' and deepening investment cooperation with countries along the 'Belt and Road', my country's non-financial direct investment in countries along the 'Belt and Road' has achieved a relatively large increase." Lu More to say.

Looking forward to the trend of China's foreign investment in the next stage, Lu Yue believes that China will continue to implement a more proactive opening-up strategy, encourage enterprises to carry out international cooperation, and accelerate the integration of foreign advanced technology and domestic industrialization advantages. China's foreign investment will continue to grow steadily. In addition, China is actively promoting the high-quality development of the joint construction of the "Belt and Road", and the policy dividends of RCEP are constantly being released. China's non-financial direct investment cooperation with the "Belt and Road" countries and the RCEP region will remain active.