Ministry of Commerce: Guide more high-quality foreign capital to enter the capital market for long-term investment

On August 2, the State Council Information Office held a series of press conferences on the theme of "Promoting High-quality Development", at which Li Yizhen, Deputy Representative of the Ministry of Commerce for International Trade Negotiations (Vice Minister level), Xu Xingfeng, Director of the Department of Market Operation and Consumption Promotion of the Ministry of Commerce, Li Xingqian, Director of the Department of Foreign Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, and Zhu Bing, Director of the Department of Foreign Investment Management of the Ministry of Commerce, attended the meeting and responded to the issues of increasing efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, the trade-in policy of consumer goods, the future work arrangements, and the foreign trade situation in the second half of the year.

Let's take a look at the key statements:

1. The optimization of the structure of foreign investment shows that foreign investors are actively adjusting the investment layout of industries and fields, which is fully in line with the general trend of accelerating the development of new productive forces and deepening the in-depth promotion of new industrialization in the mainland.

2. The basic trend of the mainland's economic rebound and long-term improvement has not changed, and the comprehensive advantages of super-large-scale market, high-quality industrial system supply, and high-end and high-quality talent supply have not changed the attraction of foreign investment, and most multinational companies are optimistic about the prospects of long-term investment in China, so they continue to increase investment.

3. The pilot free trade zone sector plays a pivotal role in the work of foreign investment, accounting for 20.8%, which is a large share, so the work of the pilot free trade zone is also an important part of the work of foreign investment.

4. The Ministry of Commerce will revise and issue the Administrative Measures for Strategic Investment by Foreign Investors in Listed Companies to guide more high-quality foreign capital to enter the capital market for long-term investment.

5. As of 9 a.m. today, the number of applications for subsidies for scrapping and renewal of automobiles nationwide exceeded 450,000, and the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles increased by 33.1% in the first half of the year.

6. The car trade-in policy should be retrospective, and those who enjoyed a subsidy of 10,000 yuan in the past and those who have enjoyed it should also make up for it according to the standard of 20,000 yuan.

7. From a regional point of view, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other coastal areas are the main force of cross-border e-commerce import and export, accounting for nearly 90% of the country's cross-border e-commerce import and export.

8. It is necessary to fully estimate the severity of difficulties and challenges in the field of foreign trade. Many international organizations believe that since the beginning of this year, global trade in goods has been in a moderate recovery range, but geopolitical tensions, increased trade restrictions, and intensified competition in industrial policies of various countries may have a greater negative impact.

9. The latest WTO monitoring shows that the import restrictions adopted by members have increased significantly, and the measures that have come into force in 2024 are expected to affect US$2.3 trillion in imports, accounting for 9.7% of total global imports, the highest level since 2020.

10. To achieve the goal of stabilizing the quality and quantity of foreign trade throughout the year, the key is to continue to exert efforts in the second half of the year.

Guide more high-quality foreign capital to enter the capital market

According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, the actual use of foreign capital in the mainland in the first half of 2024 was 498.91 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 29.1%; From the perspective of investment structure, the proportion of investment in the manufacturing industry increased by 2.4 percentage points to 28.4% compared with the same period in 2023, of which the proportion of investment in high-tech manufacturing also increased by 2.4 percentage points. In the first half of the year, nearly 27,000 new foreign-funded enterprises were established across the country, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%, continuing the trend of rapid growth of newly established foreign-funded enterprises since 2023.

Regarding the year-on-year decline in the scale of foreign investment, Zhu Bing responded that it was mainly affected by the high base in the same period last year. From a historical longitudinal point of view, the scale of foreign investment in the first half of this year was still at a relatively high level in the past decade.

At the same time, Zhu Bing pointed out that the optimization of the structure of foreign investment shows that foreign investors are actively adjusting the investment layout of industries and fields, which is completely in line with the general trend of accelerating the development of new quality productive forces and deepening the new industrialization of the mainland.

"The basic trend of the mainland's economic rebound and long-term improvement has not changed, and the comprehensive advantages of super-large-scale market, high-quality industrial system supply, and high-end and high-quality talent supply have not changed the attraction of foreign investment, and most multinational companies are optimistic about the prospects of long-term investment in China, so they continue to increase investment." Zhu Bing said that the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises in the first half of the year continued the rapid growth trend since last year, which shows the activity.

How to increase efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment? Zhu Bing stressed: First of all, it is necessary to steadily expand institutional opening-up. Among them, it is very important to give full play to the leading and exemplary role of the pilot free trade zone.

"The pilot free trade zone sector plays an important role in the work of foreign investment, accounting for 20.8%, which is a large share, so the work of the pilot free trade zone is also an important part of the work of foreign investment." Zhu Bing pointed out that at present, the Ministry of Commerce is studying and formulating a comprehensive document for the implementation of the promotion strategy of the pilot free trade zone, and will focus on launching a number of leading and integrated reform measures to explore more successful experiences that can be replicated and promoted for comprehensively deepening the reform.

In terms of opening up in key areas, the Ministry of Commerce will also conduct in-depth research on relying on the pilot free trade zone to further expand the opening up of commodity markets, service markets and capital markets, and take the two negative lists for foreign investment access and cross-border trade in services as an important starting point to promote the opening up of relevant service sectors.

Further relaxation of market access is also a key task to increase efforts to attract foreign investment in the future. Zhu Bing pointed out that the Ministry of Commerce will expand the catalogue of industries that encourage foreign investment, and at the same time release the 2024 version of the negative list for foreign investment access, and implement the "zero" requirement of manufacturing restrictions nationwide. In addition, the Ministry of Commerce will also promote the orderly opening up of telecommunications, Internet, education, culture, medical care and other fields based on its own development needs.

"We will also revise and issue the Administrative Measures for Strategic Investment by Foreign Investors in Listed Companies to guide more high-quality foreign capital to enter the capital market for long-term investment." Zhu Bing revealed.

"We can't let consumers who consume early suffer"

As of 9 o'clock this morning, the national application for subsidies for scrapping and renewal of automobiles exceeded 450,000, and the retail sales of new energy passenger vehicles increased by 33.1% in the first half of the year. Li Zhizhen said.

On July 25, the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Finance issued the "Several Measures on Strengthening Support for Large-scale Equipment Renewal and Consumer Goods Trade-in", increasing subsidies for the renewal of key areas. In terms of scrapping and renewal of automobiles, the subsidy standard for the scrapping and renewal of eligible automobiles will be increased from the previous subsidy of 10,000 yuan for the purchase of new energy passenger vehicles and 7,000 yuan for the purchase of fuel passenger cars to 20,000 yuan and 15,000 yuan respectively, which have doubled or more.

Xu Xingfeng pointed out that to allow more real money discounts to reach consumers, the future will first do a good job in policy convergence. The Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments as soon as possible to issue a notice on further doing a good job in the trade-in of automobiles and home appliances, and introduce guidelines for the "renewal" of home decoration and kitchen bathrooms, and the implementation plan for the trade-in of electric bicycles.

Xu Xingfeng stressed that the car trade-in policy should be retrospective, and those who enjoyed a subsidy of 10,000 yuan in the past and those who have enjoyed it should also make up for it according to the standard of 20,000 yuan, and consumers who consume early cannot suffer losses, which is also a manifestation of policy convergence.

Guangdong and Zhejiang are the main forces of cross-border e-commerce import and export

According to customs statistics, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce in mainland China in 2023 will increase by 1.2 times compared with 2018, and preliminary estimates show that the import and export in the first half of this year will be 1.22 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.5%, 4.4 percentage points faster than the growth rate of import and export of mainland goods trade in the same period. At the same time, the proportion of cross-border e-commerce imports and exports expanded slightly. In RMB terms, in the first half of this year, the total import and export value of the mainland's trade in goods was 21.17 trillion yuan, and based on this calculation, the import and export of cross-border e-commerce accounted for 5.76% of the total import and export value of the country's total trade in goods in the first half of the year, an increase of 0.06 percentage points compared with 2023.

Li Xingqian introduced that from a regional point of view, Guangdong, Zhejiang and other coastal areas are the main force of cross-border e-commerce import and export, accounting for nearly 90% of the country's cross-border e-commerce import and export.

"From the perspective of enterprise expectations, we have recently done a questionnaire survey, and the data shows that nearly eighty percent of cross-border e-commerce enterprises are optimistic about the growth momentum in the second half of the year." Li Xingqian said that at the 136th Canton Fair to be held in the second half of the year, a special exhibition area for cross-border e-commerce will continue to be set up. At the same time, Chinese logistics enterprises are encouraged to strengthen international cooperation with the delivery enterprises of the host country, especially to improve the performance capacity of cross-border e-commerce enterprises in the "last mile".

The Ministry of Commerce will continue to make use of communication mechanisms such as the Bilateral Joint Economic and Trade Committee and the Working Group on Unimpeded Trade to promote the experience, practices and results of cross-border e-commerce development in the mainland. At the same time, we will vigorously develop "Silk Road e-commerce" and support cross-border e-commerce comprehensive pilot zones, industries and enterprises at all levels to actively carry out international exchanges and cooperation.

Li Xingqian pointed out that to encourage cross-border e-commerce platforms to expand the categories and service functions of goods, it is necessary to support the healthy development of consumer goods e-commerce platforms mainly for the C-end, and also support the innovation and development of e-commerce platforms for industrial equipment, semi-finished products and parts mainly for the B-end.

The key to stabilizing foreign trade is to continue to exert efforts in the second half of the year

According to the data, the import and export of goods in the first half of this year reached 21.2 trillion yuan, a record high for the same period in history, a year-on-year increase of 6.1%. The average daily import and export volume was 116.31 billion yuan, an increase of more than 40% over the same period in 2019. Net exports of goods and services drove GDP growth by 0.7 percentage points. At the same time, the number of exports and imports increased by 12.7% and 3.1% respectively; The number of foreign trade entities with import and export performance increased to 586,000, a year-on-year increase of 8.7%, an increase of 47,000, and the vitality of enterprises was further released.

"In the first quarter, the international market share of exports was 13.6%, an increase of 0.2 percentage points year-on-year, and China continued to maintain its position as the largest country in trade in goods. According to preliminary estimates, the share in the first half of the year was stable at about 14%. Li pointed out.

With regard to the foreign trade situation in the second half of the year, Li Yizhen believes that it is necessary to fully estimate the seriousness of the difficulties and challenges in the field of foreign trade.

"A number of international organizations believe that since the beginning of this year, global trade in goods has been in a moderate recovery range, but geopolitical tensions, increased trade restrictions, and intensified competition in industrial policies of various countries may have a greater negative impact. According to the latest WTO monitoring, import restrictions adopted by members have increased significantly, and the measures already in force are expected to affect $2.3 trillion in imports in 2024, accounting for 9.7% of total global imports, the highest level since 2020. Li said.

Li said that the key to achieving the goal of stabilizing the quality and quantity of foreign trade throughout the year is to continue to make efforts in the second half of the year. The Ministry of Commerce will make good use of many bilateral mechanisms to help enterprises actively respond to unreasonable trade restrictions, support more enterprises to rely on platforms such as the Canton Fair to explore the international market, strive to create a stable and predictable trade policy environment, strengthen the cultivation of new momentum for foreign trade, and enhance the comprehensive competitiveness of foreign trade. At the same time, we will continue to deepen mutually beneficial cooperation with trading partners and jointly maintain the stability and smoothness of global industrial and supply chains.

Editor-in-charge: Ye Shuyun

Proofreading: Wang Wei

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