General

"In 2020, China successfully responded to the severe impact of the COVID-19. Against the background of a sharp decline in global cross-border direct investment, the actual use of foreign capital throughout the year rose against the trend, and the total amount of foreign investment, growth rate, and global share of the" three improvements "were achieved." Zong Changqing, Director of the Department of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Commerce, said on January 20 that China's goal of stabilizing foreign investment in 2020 had been successfully completed, making an important contribution to stabilizing the economic fundamentals, China has become a "stabilizer" and "safe haven" for transnational investment.

New scale

According to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce on the same day, the actual use of foreign capital in the national non-financial sector in 2020 was 999.98 billion yuan, up 6.2% year on year (equivalent to 144.37 billion dollars, up 4.5% year on year), and the scale reached a new record. In the whole year, 38570 foreign-funded enterprises were newly established, with an average of more than 100 newly established every day.

Zhang Fei, deputy director of the Foreign Investment Institute of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the face of the normalization of epidemic prevention and control and the increasingly complex and severe international situation, from the perspective of the strategic layout of opening up and various safeguard measures and institutional support, China's determination to open up remains unchanged and has accelerated the pace of opening up.

"From the perspective of strategic layout, internally, the Party Central Committee proposed to accelerate the formation of a new development pattern with the domestic big circle as the main body and the domestic and international double circle promoting each other; externally, China signed the Regional Comprehensive Economic and Trade Partnership Agreement (RCEP) with its member countries, completed the negotiation of the China-EU Investment Agreement as scheduled, and actively considered joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (CPTPP) to strive for greater international trade space for China's opening up." Zhang Fei said that from the perspective of specific supporting measures, China has implemented the Foreign Investment Law, shortened the negative list of foreign investment access, expanded the directory of industries to encourage foreign investment, continuously optimized the business environment, successfully held the third China International Fair, shared China's market opportunities with countries around the world with a series of practical actions, and promoted the economic recovery of international trade.

Focus on optimizing structure and improving quality

2021 is the opening year of China's "Fourteenth Five-Year Plan". China will accelerate the construction of a new development pattern with the domestic big cycle as the main body and the domestic and international double cycle promoting each other. The door of China's opening will only be wider and wider, which will provide more space for the development of enterprises from all over the world in China, and international trade will develop steadily.

Zong Changqing said that foreign-funded enterprises, accounting for 2% of the total number of enterprises in the country, have contributed 1/10 of the urban employment, 1/6 of the tax revenue, and 2/5 of the import and export. They have played an irreplaceable role in improving China's economic strength, scientific and technological strength, comprehensive national strength, and people's living standards by using both domestic and international markets and resources. They will also become an important new force in China's construction of a new development pattern in the future.

However, the situation faced by China's utilization of foreign capital in 2021 is still complex and severe. In this regard, Zong Changqing said that in the new year, the Ministry of Commerce will earnestly implement the spirit of the Central Economic Work Conference, in accordance with the work deployment of the "six stability" and "six guarantees" of the Party Central Committee, strive to optimize the structure and improve the quality on the basis of maintaining the basic stability of the total amount of foreign investment, firmly stabilize the basic situation of international trade and foreign capital, and promote the use of foreign capital to take a good first step in building a new development pattern and present a new atmosphere.

In particular, Zong Changqing said that the Ministry of Commerce will continue to expand its high-level opening to the outside world and attract more high-quality external factor resources to participate in the domestic circulation around the construction of a new development pattern. We will continue to innovate the way of attracting investment in the industrial chain and promote the docking and integration of domestic and international industrial chains. We will continue to improve the level of the open international trade platform, and create a connection point and support point for domestic and international double circulation. We will continue to improve the service guarantee system for foreign investment and ensure the steady operation of key foreign-funded enterprises in the supply chain of the industrial chain. We will continue to deepen the reform of "deregulation and service", and create a good business environment for foreign-funded enterprises to participate in the dual cycle.