General

At the beginning of the new year, foreign-funded enterprises stepped up the layout of the Chinese market.

According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, in January, in Zhongkai High-tech Zone, Huizhou City, Guangdong Province, AMCO Guangdong Huizhou Base was operating at full capacity. Recently, the global flexible packaging model factory built by Amco, a consumer packaging company headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, with an investment of 1 billion yuan, was officially put into operation. The annual output value of Phase I will reach 800 million yuan.

At the same time, the site of the Sino-Dutch (Suzhou) Science and Technology Innovation Port project, located in Suzhou High-speed Railway New City, Jiangsu Province, is busy and orderly, and the supporting equipment in the office tower is under construction and installation. In the future, there will be a platform for exchanges and cooperation between China and the Netherlands in various fields such as optoelectronic technology, biomedicine, high-end auto parts and components. It is expected to be officially put into operation in 2023. Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation Report.

In the first quarter of this year, 3M will build a thermal runaway barrier conversion production line in Hefei, Anhui Province. The products produced will be applied to the battery system of electric vehicles, which can effectively improve the thermal management performance of batteries. More and more advanced products will be equipped with new energy vehicles in China.

The Central Economic Working Conference pointed out that "greater efforts should be made to promote the stability and expansion of foreign investment and cultivate new growth points in international economic and trade cooperation".

Foreign-funded enterprises are an important market subject in China. Greater efforts to promote the stable stock and expansion of foreign capital are important measures for China to expand its high-level opening up, and are also necessary to serve the construction of a new development pattern.

Relying on the advantages of the super-scale market, attracting global resource elements with the domestic circulation, and creating a market-oriented, law-based, and international first-class business environment, a more open China continues to provide new opportunities for the world with its own new development, and continues to become a hot spot for investment in the eyes of foreign enterprises. According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, in 2022, China's actual use of foreign capital amounted to 1232.68 billion yuan, an increase of 6.3% year on year according to comparable standards, maintaining a stable growth.

Steady growth, and the quantity and quality of capital attraction have increased

As one of the regions with the highest degree of openness and the strongest economic vitality in China, the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is a window to observe the trend of China's utilization of foreign capital.

On December 21, 2022, the first Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao Greater Bay Area Global Investment Promotion Conference jointly held by the governments of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao opened, attracting hundreds of enterprises from around the world, involving advanced manufacturing, biotechnology, new generation information technology and other industrial fields, and finally reached 853 cooperation projects with a total investment of 2.5 trillion yuan.

At the investment promotion conference, Siemens Energy announced that Siemens Energy (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd. was officially registered. "In recent years, we have witnessed that the vision of building a 'world-class bay area' in the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao is changing from a blueprint to a reality." Yao Zhenguo, senior vice president of Siemens Energy, said, "Siemens Energy will actively support the energy transformation of the Greater Bay Area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao with an open and pragmatic attitude and innovative cooperation mode."

In recent years, despite the complex external environment, China's utilization of foreign capital has maintained a steady growth. According to the observation report of Huacheng Import and Export Data, in 2022, on the basis of the fact that the amount of foreign capital actually used in 2021 exceeded the high base of trillion yuan for the first time, China's foreign investment attraction achieved steady growth, both quantity and quality, and maintained a stable and positive trend——

The structure of attracting investment has been constantly upgraded. In 2022, the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries increased by 28.3%, accounting for 36.1% of the country, 7.1 percentage points higher than that in 2021, of which the manufacturing of electronic and communication equipment, transformation services of scientific and technological achievements and information services increased by 56.8%, 35% and 21.3% respectively.

"This shows that China's industrial transformation and upgrading has achieved remarkable results, and has formed an industrial foundation and innovation system that matches the development of global high-tech industries. In the fields of scientific and technological innovation frontier, green economic transformation, international cooperation in combating climate change, and digital economic development, multinational companies hope to grow together with Chinese enterprises and share the dividends of China's economic transformation and upgrading." Lin Meng, director of the Modern Supply Chain Research Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said.

The regional layout continues to be optimized. In 2022, the actual use of foreign capital in the central and western regions of China increased by 21.9% and 14.1% respectively, 15.6 percentage points and 7.8 percentage points higher than the national average. Among them, the absorption of foreign capital by Shanxi, Henan, Guangxi and Shaanxi increased by 229.6%, 119.8%, 49.1% and 33.6% respectively.

The main source of foreign capital has stable investment intention. In 2022, South Korea, Germany and the United Kingdom had the largest increase in investment, with growth of 64.2%, 52.9% and 40.7% respectively. Investment in China by the EU, countries along the the Belt and Road and ASEAN increased by 92.2%, 17.2% and 8.2% respectively.

"The entry into force of the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (RCEP) provides broad space for further deepening economic and trade cooperation between China, Japan and South Korea and other RCEP member countries." Lin Meng believes that the high-level facilitation and liberalization policies and measures in the fields of goods, services, investment and other fields among the RCEP member countries have significantly improved the level of regional economic integration in East Asia and released the growth potential of intraregional trade and investment. China will also further accelerate the signing of high-level free trade agreements with more countries and regions, which will undoubtedly help promote the growth of global trade and investment.

Strong tenacity and competitive advantage

Recently, CCPIT conducted a survey on more than 160 foreign-funded enterprises and foreign business associations. The results show that 99.4% of the foreign enterprises interviewed have more confidence in the prospects of China's economic development in 2023. Foreign-funded enterprises interviewed generally believed that China's economy is resilient and has comprehensive competitive advantages in market potential, industrial system, infrastructure, business environment and other aspects.

Complete production factors, safe and stable industrial chain supply chain——

On the production line, each equipment works in order. Located in the West Airport Development Zone, Shuangliu District, Chengdu, Sichuan Province, Gardner Airlines Chengdu Global Flagship Factory will continuously produce aircraft parts and components to be delivered to well-known aircraft manufacturers at home and abroad such as Airbus.

At present, Gardner Chengdu Factory has transferred a large number of manufacturing technologies and process methods of wing parts from the British headquarters of Gardner Airlines. Taking some parts of aircraft wings as an example, about 400 kinds of parts can be produced at present. It is expected that the business will expand from aircraft parts to engine parts and other fields in the future.

"China has a broad market prospect, and now the demand for our aircraft parts is surging. We will continue to expand our business in China and strive to achieve better development." James, general manager of Gardner Airlines (Chengdu) Co., Ltd., said that the company is cooperating with COMAC on the supply of C919 aircraft parts. Since 2022, enterprises have purchased a new batch of precision processing equipment to improve production capacity, and will continue to increase production capacity in 2023.

In the eyes of many foreign-funded enterprises, China has the demand advantage of a large-scale market and the supply advantage of a complete industrial system. It is not only an important production base, but also a target sales market that cannot be missed.

The door is opening wider and wider, and China's opportunities are shared by the world——

In October 2022, the Franco-Pakistan Agricultural Bank Finance Co., Ltd., a joint venture established by Paris Asset Management Holding Company and Agricultural Bank of China, was approved for construction, with a registered capital of 1 billion yuan, of which 51% was contributed by Franco-Pakistan Asset Management and 49% by Agricultural Bank of China.

As the witness and beneficiary of the opening up of China's financial industry, Wei Lishan, director of the Asia-Pacific region of the French and Pakistani asset management, is full of confidence in the future development: "China will unswervingly expand its opening up and continue to provide new opportunities for the world with China's new development. At present, China is the second largest asset management market in the world and has broad prospects for development. We will bring the advanced experience, diversified products and risk control concepts accumulated in global asset management over the years to China and bring more rich and high-quality products and services to Chinese investors."

Since 2022, China has implemented a new negative list of foreign investment access, relaxed market access in financial, automotive and other fields, issued the Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment (2022), expanded the scope of foreign investment, issued special policies for attracting investment in manufacturing industry, and 15 measures to promote the high-quality development of foreign investment, effectively stabilized the development expectations of foreign-funded enterprises, and provided a broader development space for foreign investment.

Adhere to reform and innovation, and the open platform plays an active role——

In 2022, the international tourism retailer giant DFS (global duty-free store) Group successfully won the bid for the domestic taxed retail franchise of Chongqing Airport, which was the first appearance of DFS in China's taxed retail market. "Not only DFS, but also DuFRY and other three major tourism retailers in the world. Many international high-quality brands have been launched in succession, which will effectively improve the international service quality of Chongqing airport business and help Chongqing build an international consumption center city," said the relevant person in charge of China New (Chongqing) Airport Business Management Co., Ltd.

Behind the acceleration of DFS Group's entry into the Chinese market is the orderly promotion of the China-Singapore (Chongqing) strategic connectivity demonstration project. "Our company itself is the result of Sino-Singapore cooperation, which was jointly established by Chongqing Airport Group and Singapore Changi Airport (China) Co., Ltd. Through introducing the advanced business concept of Singapore Changi Airport, we have found a business model suitable for our own development, and are accelerating the upgrading of the business circle of Chongqing Airport," said the person in charge.

The 21 pilot free trade zones cover the east, west, north and south, and the intergovernmental cooperation demonstration projects, comprehensive bonded zones, and economic and technological development zones accelerate the reform and innovation. Now, China's various open platforms have taken the lead and successively introduced trade and investment liberalization and facilitation measures, becoming a new highland for attracting foreign investment.

Take multiple measures to create a better environment

How to attract and utilize foreign capital more vigorously this year?

The relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that we should resolutely implement the spirit of the Twentieth National Congress of the Communist Party of China (CPC), adhere to the principle of stability and seek progress while maintaining stability, take multiple measures to stabilize the stock, expand the quantity and improve the quality, and constantly improve the quality and level of foreign capital utilization.

Shu Jueting, the spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, said that the negative list of foreign capital access should be reasonably reduced and the opening of modern service industry should be strengthened. We will increase the pilot efforts of open platforms such as free trade pilot zones, free trade ports, pilot projects for expanding the opening of the service industry, and national economic development zones, and accelerate the replication and promotion of pilot experience. We are confident in promoting the use of foreign capital to stabilize the stock and expand the volume.

We will continue to expand opening-up and further relax the entry threshold.

Recently, the Ministry of Commerce issued a comprehensive pilot plan for expanding the opening of the service industry in six cities, including Shenyang, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Wuhan, Guangzhou and Chengdu. Previously, China has carried out pilot projects in five provinces and cities, including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan and Chongqing, and carried out exploratory pilot projects in the fields of industrial opening up and development, trade and investment liberalization and facilitation, and institutional reform, forming eight batches of 43 experience cases for nationwide promotion. According to Huacheng Import and Export Data Observation, from January to November 2022, the service industries of the five provinces and cities above absorbed US $47.69 billion, accounting for 36.8% of the country, with a year-on-year increase of 10.2%.

Optimize the business environment and implement the national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises.

"In order to attract foreign investment, Guangdong has launched a series of favorable policies, including the foreign capital award and subsidy policy, the multinational company headquarters policy, the foreign capital R&D center support policy, and the special support policy for the free trade pilot zone. Up to now, Guangdong has supported more than 200 qualified foreign capital projects (enterprises), delivered more than 3.5 billion yuan of reward funds, and leveraged more than 10 billion dollars of actual foreign investment." Zhao Qing, deputy director of the Department of Commerce of Guangdong Province, said that in order to attract foreign investment, Guangdong has prepared the "Investment Attraction Map of Strategic Industrial Clusters in Guangdong Province", which foreign enterprises can compare and understand and focus on investment.

"To do a good job in utilizing foreign capital, we should firmly grasp the ox nose of improving the business environment." Long Guoqiang, deputy director of the Development Research Center of the State Council, said that the global layout of international investors, to a certain extent, is to vote on the business environment of various countries. We should accelerate the construction of a unified domestic market, break down local protectionism and industrial barriers, implement the national treatment of foreign-funded enterprises, ensure that foreign-funded enterprises participate equally in government procurement, bidding and standard formulation according to law, and strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights and the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment.

Strengthen service and improve trade and investment convenience.

Since 2022, Sichuan has deeply implemented the "Special Action for Foreign Investment Services", held 188 government-enterprise symposiums in both offline and online ways, coordinated, responded to and solved more than 590 demands of foreign-funded enterprises, and contributed to the capital increase of 213 foreign-funded projects in Sichuan, including Messer of Germany and Emerson of the United States, with the capital increase accounting for 52% of the contracted foreign capital. Lin Li, director of the Foreign Investment Division of the Sichuan Economic Cooperation Bureau, said that in 2023, Sichuan will increase its service guarantee efforts, create more convenient conditions for foreign investors to carry out investment and trade activities in Sichuan, and facilitate the landing of a number of landmark projects.

Yang Fan, a spokesman for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the CCPIT would strengthen its regular contacts with multinational companies and foreign business associations, hold seminars on foreign-funded enterprises, strengthen cooperation with relevant departments and local governments, organize more policy briefings and dialogues between governments and enterprises, and strengthen policy interpretation and precise drip irrigation.

On the new journey, we will continue to promote high-level opening to the outside world and steadily expand the institutional opening of rules, regulations, management and standards. Creating a market-oriented, law-based and internationalized first-class business environment will enable more investors to share China's development dividend and enable foreign capital to play a more active role in promoting China's economic development.