Source: People's Daily Overseas Edition
On April 26, the signing ceremony of deepening strategic cooperation between Shenyang City, Liaoning Province and BMW Group was held in Shenyang. The BMW Group announced that it will continue to deepen its presence in China and increase its capital by RMB 20 billion for large-scale upgrades and technological innovation at BMW Brilliance's Dadong plant. At present, Shenyang has become the world's largest production base and one of the most important new energy vehicle centers of the BMW Group. The picture shows BMW's electric vehicle products on display at the signing ceremony. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Pan Yulong
Since the beginning of this year, what has been the situation of foreign-funded enterprises operating and expanding their business in China? What is the momentum of the development of foreign trade? What are the demands of Chinese enterprises abroad? On 28 April, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade held a regular press conference to respond to these questions. Zhao Ping, spokesperson of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said that the comprehensive advantages of the Chinese market in attracting foreign investment are still prominent, and the enthusiasm of Chinese enterprises to expand the international market is high, and the momentum of foreign trade activities is strong.
The momentum of foreign trade development is good
According to the data released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, from January to March this year, the national trade promotion system issued a total of 1,549,500 certificates of origin, ATA carnets, commercial certificates and other certificates, a year-on-year increase of 17.38%. "This reflects the good momentum of the mainland's foreign trade development since the beginning of this year, and makes us more confident in achieving the goal of 'quality and quantity stability' of foreign trade throughout the year." Zhao Ping said.
A certificate of origin is a document certifying the origin of goods, and its issuance is considered a "barometer" of foreign trade. According to the data, the total amount of non-preferential certificates of origin visas in the national trade promotion system was 84.931 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 2.47%. The total amount of preferential certificates of origin visas under the national trade promotion system was 16.121 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 4.73%.
The total amount of RCEP certificates of origin visas in the national trade promotion system was 1.666 billion US dollars, a year-on-year increase of 2.38%, and the number of visas totaled 54,000, a year-on-year increase of 18.56%. Zhao Ping introduced that the amount of RCEP certificates of origin visas and the number of visas in the national trade promotion system have both increased, indicating that the trade dividends brought by RCEP have continued to be released, and foreign trade enterprises have obtained real benefits.
ATA Carnet is an internationally accepted customs clearance document, specially created by the World Customs Organization for temporary entry and exit of goods, also known as "cargo clearance passport". From January to March, the national trade promotion system issued a total of 2,954 outbound ATA carnets, a year-on-year increase of 73.66%, and the value of the relevant ATA carnets was about 806 million yuan, a year-on-year increase of 117.25%. The top five destinations by number of visas were Germany (518), Italy (407), Hong Kong (363), the United States (332) and Russia (197). "The continuous growth in the number of ATA carnets reflects the continued growth of the motivation and enthusiasm of mainland enterprises to expand the international market, and the continuous strengthening of foreign trade activities such as overseas publicity and exhibition, business exchanges, etc. Zhao Ping said.
Foreign-funded enterprises are optimistic about the Chinese market
In the first quarter, there were 12,000 new foreign-funded enterprises in China, a year-on-year increase of 20.7%. What is the status of foreign-funded enterprises in China?
"CCPIT has face-to-face contact with foreign-funded enterprises every day to provide services for the operation and development of foreign-funded enterprises in China. What we feel is that foreign companies are optimistic about the Chinese market and have confidence in investing in China. Zhao Ping said.
According to reports, in the first quarter, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade conducted a survey on the business environment of more than 600 foreign-funded enterprises. Overall, the surveyed foreign enterprises have a high satisfaction rating with China's business environment, and the proportion of "satisfactory" or above in all indicators has increased compared with the fourth quarter of last year.
According to the survey, the surveyed foreign companies are confident in the Chinese market. More than 70% of the surveyed foreign-funded enterprises are optimistic about the development prospects of the Chinese market in the next five years, an increase of about 3.8 percentage points from the previous month. More than half of the foreign companies surveyed believe that the attractiveness of the Chinese market has "increased", an increase of about 2.9 percentage points from the previous month.
The foreign companies surveyed are generally optimistic about their business expectations in China. More than half of the foreign companies surveyed expect to increase their investment margins in China in the next five years. It is expected that the proportion of foreign-funded enterprises with capital increase plans in China will increase by 2.1 percentage points month-on-month this year. The proportion of respondents from North America is 4.5 percentage points higher than that of foreign companies.
"The above survey data reflects that the comprehensive advantages of attracting foreign investment in the Chinese market are still prominent, coupled with a series of policies to stabilize the economy, promote opening up and attract foreign investment since the first quarter, the mainland's good investment environment and high-level opening up have enhanced the confidence of foreign-funded enterprises to invest in China. Zhao Ping said.
The scope of China-EU economic and trade cooperation continues to expand
Recently, the leaders of the Netherlands, Germany and other EU countries have visited China one after another, and China-EU economic and trade relations have attracted much attention.
According to the Doing Business 2023/2024 report released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, bilateral economic and trade cooperation between China and the EU has shown a good momentum of consolidation and development in the past year.
On the one hand, bilateral economic and trade cooperation has shown strong resilience. China remains the EU's second largest trading partner, the largest source of imports, and the third largest export market, while the EU is China's second largest trading partner, second largest source of imports, and second largest export market.
On the other hand, the scope of China-EU economic and trade cooperation has been expanding. China and the EU have reached a series of outcomes and consensus on macroeconomic policy coordination, industrial and supply chain cooperation, improving the business environment, WTO reform, two-way opening-up of the financial sector and regulatory cooperation. 52.38% of the surveyed companies said they would maintain or expand their investment in Europe.
At the same time, some enterprises called on the EU to continue to improve and optimize the business environment, mainly putting forward five suggestions, including providing a fair and transparent business environment for foreign enterprises to develop in Europe, stopping the promotion of various discriminatory policies under the framework of "de-risking", keeping the investment market open, formulating a reasonable foreign investment review list, reducing foreign investment access restrictions, not abusing trade remedy measures, and improving the level of comprehensive services.
Zhao Ping said that the CCPIT will organize more China-EU economic and trade exchange activities to promote practical cooperation between Chinese and European enterprises to a higher level, and will also pay close attention to the relevant measures of the European side to improve the business environment and firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese enterprises. (Reporter Li Jie)
People's Daily Overseas Edition (2024-04-29 Edition 03)
