On March 31, the foundation construction of the 209 assembly plant, the largest single building of the second final assembly line project of Airbus Tianjin A320 series aircraft, was completed and officially transferred to the main construction stage. The project will be built on the existing Airbus Tianjin Assembly Company's plant, mainly producing A320 and A321 series aircraft, and is expected to be delivered and put into production by the end of 2026. The picture shows workers carrying out construction work at the construction site of the project. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Zhao Zishuo
On April 5, the 2024 "Invest in China" series of activities was held in Stuttgart, Germany, attracting more than 300 representatives of the German business community. According to a report by the German Institute for Economic Research, German investment in China will account for 10.3% of Germany's total overseas investment in 2023, the highest level since 2014. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Ren Pengfei
Recently, many senior executives of multinational companies have come to China to participate in forums and meetings, discuss business cooperation, inspect the investment environment, and connect with relevant departments, which have been constantly rushing to the "hot search". In line with this, the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises in China increased by 34.9% year-on-year in the first two months of this year, the State Council has introduced a series of policies and measures to attract and utilize foreign investment more vigorously, and the survey shows that the satisfaction of foreign-funded enterprises with China's business environment has continued to increase.
Why do executives of multinational corporations visit China intensively, what activities do they participate in, and what signals do their remarks during their visits to China send?
Cast a vote of confidence with action
Since March this year, senior executives of multinational companies have visited China intensively.
On March 20, Apple CEO Tim Cook appeared in Shanghai to meet with Wang Chuanfu, chairman and president of BYD Co., Ltd., and Apple suppliers such as BYD Electronics, Lens Technology, and Changying Precision demonstrated their intelligent manufacturing technologies and the parts and products produced for Apple. The next day, Apple's largest retail store in Chinese mainland opened in Shanghai. Cook said that Apple will strengthen long-term cooperation with Chinese supply chain partners to achieve a win-win situation in green manufacturing and intelligent manufacturing. "There is nothing more important to Apple's supply chain than China. Cook said.
The 2024 Annual Meeting of the China Development Forum, held on March 24-25, attracted nearly 100 senior executives from multinational companies. At the meeting, many executives mentioned China's increasingly important role in driving global innovation and expressed their willingness to continue to deploy in China.
"We plan to expand our investment in China, and we will break ground on an expansion project in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, with an investment of more than 4.3 billion yuan. Micron Technology President and CEO Sanjay Mehrotra said.
"We will give full play to the advantages of digitalization, accelerate the dual transformation of digitalization and green and low-carbon, share green opportunities with China's industries, and jointly promote high-quality development. Zhao Guohua, chairman of Schneider Electric Group, said.
"Mercedes-Benz's strategic goal of developing electric vehicles remains unchanged, and it will firmly expand investment in China. Kang Linsong, chairman of the board of directors of Mercedes-Benz, said that Mercedes-Benz is willing to strengthen cooperation with China's auto industry and play an active role in promoting the reduction of trade barriers and maintaining a level playing field.
In addition to speaking out, many executives of multinational companies choose to take a walk and take a look in person to experience the investment environment in various places up close.
At the end of March, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade organized a number of foreign business associations and institutions, as well as representatives of more than 30 foreign-funded enterprises such as Qualcomm and GE Healthcare (China) to participate in the "Hainan Tour", the first stop of the "local tour" of foreign enterprises, including 15 of the world's top 500 enterprises, in Haikou, Sanya and other places to conduct government-enterprise dialogues, investment talks, park research, industrial inspection and docking, etc.
At the first landmark event of "Invest in China" held on March 26, in front of more than 140 entrepreneurs from 17 countries and regions and representatives of foreign business associations in China, relevant officials of the Ministry of Commerce, the People's Bank of China, the Cyberspace Administration of China and the Beijing Municipality interpreted relevant policies in the fields of optimizing the foreign investment environment, regulating cross-border data flow, and optimizing payment services, so as to promote credit enhancement and dispel doubts.
According to He Yadong, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, the person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce recently met with the global heads of more than 20 multinational companies such as Apple, Qualcomm and Mercedes-Benz, and the relevant multinational companies cover various fields such as medicine, automobiles, food, finance, cosmetics, electronic information, chemical energy, etc.
During the exchange, executives of multinational companies expressed their continued investment in China. Apple said it will continue to increase investment in China's supply chain, R&D and sales. Germany's Wacker Chemie AG said it will firmly invest in China to help the green and low-carbon transformation of the chemical, automotive, energy and other industries. "Multinational companies from all walks of life have visited China intensively to feel the strong spring spirit of China's economic recovery, demonstrating the strong 'magnetic attraction' of the Chinese market. He Yadong said.
Continue to increase investment in China
The intensive visits of senior executives of multinational companies to China are a microcosm of the continuous increase in foreign investment in China.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to February this year, the number of new foreign-funded enterprises in China reached 7,160, a year-on-year increase of 34.9%. The relevant person in charge of the Department of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Commerce said that this figure is the highest level in the past five years, showing that multinational companies are still optimistic about the development opportunities of the Chinese market and continue to increase their investment in China.
In terms of sources, investment in China from some developed economies has grown rapidly. From January to February, France, Spain, Australia, and Germany increased their actual investment in China by 585.8 percent, 399.3 percent, 144.5 percent, and 19.8 percent, respectively. "Although some countries have promoted the repatriation of industries and capital, and introduced restrictions on China-related investment, which have interfered with normal cross-border investment decisions, many multinational companies still choose to continue to invest in China. The person in charge said.
From a structural point of view, as China continues to promote high-quality economic development, foreign investment in China is also constantly transforming and upgrading. From January to February, 1,865 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established in the high-tech industry, a year-on-year increase of 32.2%, and the actual use of foreign investment was 71.44 billion yuan, accounting for 33.2% of the country's actual use of foreign investment, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over the same period in 2023. Among them, the actual use of foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing was 28.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%.
Not long ago, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade released a survey report on nearly 600 foreign-funded enterprises, showing that the satisfaction of the surveyed foreign-funded enterprises with China's business environment continues to increase. "More than 80% of the surveyed foreign companies are 'satisfied' with China's business environment in 2023, more than 90% believe that the Chinese market is attractive, and nearly 70% are optimistic about the prospects of the Chinese market in the next five years. Yang Fan, spokesman for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said.
Foreign investors are increasing their investment in China because of China's continuously improving business environment.
At the first landmark event of "Invest in China", the Ministry of Commerce issued a series of measures to stabilize foreign investment: continue to reduce the negative list for foreign investment access with a higher level of opening up and expansion, increase the catalogue of encouraged foreign-funded industries, and use "one reduction and one increase" to make more foreign investment "willing to come" and "enter"; stabilize the stock with better services, hold monthly roundtables of foreign-funded enterprises, and promote the solution of problems of concern to foreign-funded enterprises; improve quality with more precise policies, increase R&D centers, advanced manufacturing, green and low-carbon, The policy support for attracting investment in the digital economy and other fields has created good conditions for foreign investment to participate in the development of China's new productive forces.
Foreign investment in China is inseparable from China's strong safeguard and docking measures.
Yang Fan introduced that the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) has hosted nearly 40 key activities such as local tours of foreign-funded enterprises and foreign-funded enterprise symposiums in the past two years, and the national trade promotion system has promoted the resolution or positive response to more than 6,000 demands of foreign-funded enterprises, and the "Invest in China" platform of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade has released 6,152 investment projects, 1,461 policy documents, 2,892 investment news, and 20,000 domestic key park information, which has contributed to the signing of many foreign-funded projects.
Foreign investment in China is even more favored by China's super-large market.
A relevant person in charge of the Ministry of Commerce said that the favorable factors for attracting foreign investment in China still outweigh the unfavorable factors, and the prospects for investing in China are bright. "The fundamentals of China's long-term economic growth have not changed, China's market is large, the supply chain is complete, the infrastructure is perfect, the human resources are abundant, etc., the comprehensive advantages of investment are still prominent, coupled with a series of policies to stabilize the economy, promote opening up, and attract foreign investment, which will create more favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment. The person in charge said.
Confidence in the development of China is firmer
According to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 18% in 2023. In this context, the confidence of multinational companies in the Chinese market is invaluable.
In the "Hainan Tour" activity, foreign-funded enterprises put forward more than 40 problems and demands, all of which were solved or responded to by relevant functional departments of Hainan Province, and many enterprises also reached cooperation intentions with Hainan Province in the fields of digital economy, health care industry, equipment remanufacturing, and environmental protection.
According to the Japan External Trade Organization, nearly 90% of Japanese companies surveyed will maintain or increase investment in China. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said that 77% of the surveyed companies intend to expand their business in South China, the American Chamber of Commerce in China said that most American companies in China have improved their profitability in 2023, and more than 50% of the surveyed companies regard China as the first or top three investment destinations, and the German Chamber of Commerce in China said that more than half of German companies plan to increase their investment in China in the next two years...... during the "Hainan Tour", a number of foreign business associations and institutions in China said that most foreign companies still regard China as an important investment destination. Optimistic about China's economic outlook.
The Central Economic Work Conference has made it clear that "consolidating the basic market of foreign trade and foreign investment" and "expanding high-level opening-up"; the General Office of the State Council has issued the "Action Plan for Solidly Promoting High-level Opening-up and Attracting and Utilizing Foreign Investment with Greater Efforts" (hereinafter referred to as the "Action Plan"...... A series of institutional arrangements and policy measures for China's high-level opening-up have strengthened the confidence of foreign investment in China.
Li Dawei, a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Economic Research of the China Academy of Macroeconomics, believes that at present, foreign-funded enterprises investing in China no longer mainly focus on preferential tax treatment, but more on achieving mutual benefit and win-win results in the process of deepening the Chinese market. In this regard, the Action Plan has introduced measures such as formulating fair competition review rules in the field of bidding and bidding, supporting foreign-funded enterprises to participate in the formulation and revision of standards, improving the scientific level of administrative law enforcement, and improving the service system for foreign-invested enterprises, providing institutional guarantees for accelerating the construction of a unified national market.
In terms of the implementation of the Action Plan, the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission said that it will actively take effective measures with relevant departments to carry out pilot projects in relevant fields, strengthen services for major foreign-funded projects and increase relevant policy support, encourage and support foreign-funded enterprises to invest in China's green economy, digital economy and health industry, and share China's super-large-scale market opportunities with the Chinese market.
Yang Fan said that he will continue to expand the function of serving foreign-funded enterprises, better play the role of the special class, adhere to the brand activity of "local travel" of foreign-funded enterprises, improve the normal dialogue mechanism such as foreign-funded enterprise symposiums and Sino-foreign enterprise exchange meetings, regularly carry out research on the business environment of foreign-funded enterprises and publish reports, respond to the demands and suggestions of foreign-funded enterprises in a timely manner, continuously improve the level of refinement of services, and help create a market-oriented, law-based and international first-class business environment.
"Overall, multinationals remain confident about investing in China. He Yadong said that China continues to link the world with a higher level of openness. "Choosing China is choosing opportunities, and investing in China is investing in the future. We will, as always, welcome enterprises from all over the world to invest in China and share the dividends of China's high-quality development. He Yadong said.