Boosting Investment Confidence of Foreign Enterprises in the Large Market Technology | Innovation | Foreign Enterprises
In recent times, executives from multinational corporations around the world have sparked a wave of visits to China, and a large number of foreign investment projects have also been landing in China. On the one hand, this reflects the high confidence of multinational corporations in the prospects of the Chinese economy, and on the other hand, it reflects the importance of the Chinese market in the development strategy of multinational corporations.
Market size nurtures development opportunities
In the Neijiang Economic and Technological Development Zone of Sichuan Province, the construction work of the Tian Si Group Red Bull Beverage Production Base project is being carried out intensively. This is the second factory directly invested by Thai Tencel Group in China, with a total investment of 2 billion yuan and an estimated total production capacity of 1.44 billion cans per year. The reason why Thailand's Tencel Group is setting up a new factory in Sichuan is because of the vast consumption potential in the western market of China.
"China has a huge population, steadily improving people's living standards, and a stable consumer market. Since the beginning of this year, the Chinese economy has shown a clear recovery trend. With more measures to promote consumption gradually being implemented, the Chinese consumer market will show greater development potential and bring us great opportunities." said Xu Xinxiong, CEO of Thailand's Tencel Group.
Bai Ming, a member and researcher of the Academic Degrees Committee of the Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce, stated that although the Chinese economy is facing some challenges, the long-term trend of improvement has not changed. The potential of China's consumer market remains great. Especially at a time when the global economic recovery is uncertain and some economies are facing recession risks, the role of the Chinese market in stabilizing the operational performance of multinational corporations is more prominent, and multinational corporations are paying more attention to the Chinese market.
Continuous investment is a direct manifestation of foreign investment's emphasis on the Chinese market. On May 22nd, Siemens Medical announced that it will invest more than 1 billion yuan to build a new high-end medical equipment research and manufacturing base in Nanshan District, Shenzhen. On June 5th, Siemens Medical Shanghai Diagnostic Reagent Base was officially put into operation, with a total investment of nearly 3 billion yuan.
Wang Tao, Vice President of Siemens Healthcare Greater China, stated that China has a huge population base, and the per capita disposable income level of residents is constantly increasing. The demand for high-quality medical services among the general public continues to grow. China is currently the second largest global market for Siemens Healthcare, and it is expected that by 2030, China will become the world's largest medical device market, providing broad space for medical technology companies, including Siemens Healthcare, to develop in China.
In addition to the steadily developing traditional consumption sector, the rapid development of some emerging industries has also injected confidence into the development of multinational corporations in China.
With the proposal of the "dual carbon" goal, China's new energy industries such as photovoltaics and wind energy have entered a fast lane of development, attracting many multinational companies to participate. Ren Jing, Senior Vice President of Schneider Electric and Head of Energy Management Low Voltage Business in China, stated that accelerating the application of new energy is the only way to achieve the "dual carbon" goal. Building a new type of power system to improve the efficiency of new energy use from both the supply and user sides will become a major demand in the Chinese market. The new energy industry in China will maintain high-speed growth in the next 10 years. "In the past, we focused more on industries and construction. In the future, the new energy sector will also become one of our investment priorities in the Chinese market, and we have set relatively optimistic growth goals," said Ren Jing.
Expected stable development with comparative advantages
Beyond the vast market size, China's complete supply chain has brought stable expectations for multinational corporations to operate in China, becoming an important factor in attracting multinational corporations.
China has the world's largest, most comprehensive, and most complete manufacturing system, and a complete industrial chain with obvious comparative advantages. According to a research report released by PwC, most multinational companies surveyed in China highly recognize the unique advantages of China's supply chain. A well-developed industrial chain and related supporting facilities are the second most important attraction factor for foreign investment, second only to market size.
The French Dassault system is committed to helping corporate clients achieve digital transformation. At present, Dassault System's business mainly revolves around industrial equipment, life sciences, and infrastructure, with a layout in 12 sub industries. Zhang Ying, President of Dassault Systems Greater China, stated that as the world's largest manufacturing country, China has the world's most complete and largest industrial system and complete supporting capabilities. It plays an indispensable role in maintaining global industrial and supply chain stability, and is also crucial for multinational companies to achieve business stability. Thanks to this, Dassault System has laid out the vast majority of industry businesses in the Chinese market.
In addition to hardware conditions such as supply chain and infrastructure, software conditions such as continuously optimized industry policies and business environments are also highly valued by multinational corporations.
Song Weiqun, Senior Vice President of Johnson&Johnson Global and Chairman of China, stated that in recent years, China's healthcare reform has continued to deepen, and relevant departments have continuously promoted innovation in the approval system and management of pharmaceutical devices. They have also accelerated the entry of innovative products into the medical insurance catalog, and through preferential policies such as pilot testing, they have built a green channel for the accelerated landing of innovative pharmaceutical devices. This demonstrates China's determination to promote the healthy development of the medical industry, and also allows Johnson&Johnson's innovative medical and health products and solutions to "fly into the homes of ordinary people", strengthening Johnson&Johnson's confidence in its development in China.
Xu Xinxiong is deeply impressed by the continuous optimization of China's business environment. He stated that in recent years, China has continuously deepened its opening-up to the outside world, providing foreign-funded enterprises with a more market-oriented, legal, and international business environment, effectively stimulating market vitality. China has continuously improved its intellectual property legal system, strengthened administrative law enforcement and judicial protection, promoted departmental and regional cooperation, and deepened international cooperation to enhance intellectual property protection. This has made enterprises feel that brands and technologies can be equally protected in China, and strengthened the confidence and determination of foreign investment in China.
Innovation environment enhances development level
In recent years, China's innovation environment has been continuously optimized, and the level of social innovation has continued to improve. More and more multinational companies see China as an important driving force for technological progress and product innovation, and have increased their investment in research and development in China.
Bai Ming stated that for multinational corporations, promoting technological progress and product innovation requires strengthening external exchanges and cooperation. With the continuous advancement of China's high-quality economic development, more and more Chinese enterprises are rapidly upgrading their products and technologies, enhancing their innovation capabilities, and becoming ideal partners for multinational corporations. At the same time, the Chinese market has a high acceptance and demand for innovative products, and there are also many high-quality talents in China, which enables multinational companies to efficiently promote research and development innovation in China.
In order to better seize the development opportunities in China, Siemens Healthcare China has launched the "National Intelligence Innovation" strategy, actively promoting the localization of production, manufacturing, research and development, and supply chain. "The 'Guozhi Innovation' strategy will enhance Siemens Medical's innovation level in China, and Siemens should better play a bridging role, leverage global resources and technological advantages to promote international exchanges in the medical field, and promote high-quality development of the industry," said Wang Tao.
In Zhang Ying's view, China is currently entering a critical period of innovative development, with technologies such as green transformation, digital economy, and intelligence providing new impetus for enterprise development. "With solutions based on virtual twin technology, Dassault System continues to assist manufacturing enterprises in achieving intelligent manufacturing transformation and high-quality development. Dassault System collaborates with local governments to create innovation centers, driving more Chinese partners to accelerate digital transformation. At the same time, Dassault System has also seen a strong demand for digital technology from a large number of small and medium-sized enterprises in the innovation wave, and will continue to strengthen cooperation with them to meet customer needs while promoting its own business development," said Zhang Ying.
Song Weiqun introduced that the Chinese market is increasingly becoming an important source of innovation in Johnson&Johnson's global business landscape. China is the only market outside the United States where Johnson&Johnson has R&D departments or teams in all major business sectors. There are over 600 R&D personnel responsible for the research and transformation of innovative medical products and drugs, serving the needs of local patients and customers. In recent years, Johnson&Johnson has continuously strengthened its domestic research and production capabilities in China, and has built and put into operation large-scale high-end supply chain production bases or research and development centers in Shanghai, Suzhou, Xi'an, Guangzhou and other places. At the same time, the company is accelerating its digital transformation by utilizing technologies such as surgical robots, big data, artificial intelligence, and 5G to continuously promote digital treatment solutions, create digital operation models, and jointly build a digital ecological industry chain. "Johnson&Johnson actively collaborates with various parties in China, including industry, academia, and research, to build an open innovation ecosystem and accelerate the transformation of innovation achievements," said Song Weiqun.
