The overall trend of foreign enterprises expanding their investment in China has not changed (Open Talk) China | Foreign funded enterprises | Investment

Foreign funded enterprises are important market entities in China, and greater efforts are being made to promote the stability and expansion of foreign investment, which is an important measure to expand high-level opening up to the outside world and a necessary measure to serve the construction of a new development pattern.

Since the beginning of this year, the growth rate of the world economy has slowed down. Against the backdrop of a decline in global cross-border direct investment, coupled with the impact of high base factors in the same period of 2022, the actual amount of foreign investment used by China has slightly decreased year-on-year from January to June, but the overall scale has remained stable. A number of major foreign investment projects have accelerated their landing, and the confidence of foreign enterprises in operating in China has significantly rebounded. The achievement of a series of achievements is not easy. From January to June, China's actual use of foreign investment reached 703.65 billion yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 2.7%; China has established 24000 new foreign-invested enterprises, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%.

The short-term fluctuations in the amount of foreign investment used do not affect the sustained optimism of foreign-funded enterprises towards China's development prospects, and the overall trend of foreign enterprises expanding their investment in China has not changed. Since the beginning of this year, many executives from Fortune Global 500 companies such as Apple, Samsung, and Tesla have come to China for inspection, fully demonstrating that foreign companies are generally confident in the prospects of China's economic development and have cast a vote of confidence in China's economic development through practical actions.

The reason why China can maintain stability and improve quality in utilizing foreign investment is mainly due to the following five aspects: firstly, the increasingly strong "magnetic force" of the super large scale Chinese market, which attracts foreign enterprises to continuously increase their investment enthusiasm in China. Secondly, the trend of China's economy maintaining growth has not changed, and foreign-funded enterprises can still achieve stable high returns on investment in China, which is difficult to achieve in many other developing countries. Thirdly, China already has a relatively complete industrial and supply chain system, especially in the manufacturing industry where cluster supporting advantages are obvious. It can quickly respond to global order demands and provide cost-effective products and services. The fourth is the continuous optimization of China's business environment and the introduction of a series of measures to stabilize foreign investment, including further expanding the scope of market access in the service industry, providing equal national treatment to foreign investors, and gradually aligning with international standards in terms of systems, so that foreign investment in China is both reassuring and reassuring. The fifth is the continuous emergence of new technologies, new products, new forms of business, and new models in China, with richer application scenarios, providing a venue for foreign-funded enterprises to carry out innovation experiments in China, and enabling them to better participate in China's "dual circulation". It can be said that these advantageous conditions will provide a broad space for the development of foreign-funded enterprises in China.

However, the current global political and economic landscape has undergone significant changes, and the global industrial and supply chains are accelerating their restructuring. Developed economies such as the United States, Europe, and Japan, as well as developing countries such as India and Vietnam, have introduced relevant policies to attract foreign investment. Multinational enterprises will face more opportunities and choices; On the other hand, the impact of non economic factors on multinational enterprise investment is gradually increasing, which will bring certain uncertainty to foreign investment in China. However, it must be emphasized that the door to China's opening up has always been open, and China's position as a driving force and ballast in global economic growth is difficult to shake. China remains a hot spot for foreign direct investment, and the Chinese market has always been a high-quality choice for foreign investment.

At present, in order to promote the high-quality development of utilizing foreign investment, it is urgent to focus on the expectations and demands of foreign-funded enterprises in strengthening factor support, optimizing financing support, increasing market access, and improving service guarantees. We need to continuously improve policies related to attracting foreign investment with greater intensity and intensity, and continuously enhance the confidence and motivation of foreign enterprises in investing and developing in China. Firstly, steadily expanding institutional openness in rules, management, standards, and other areas to ensure fair participation of foreign-funded enterprises in competition; Secondly, we will increase the opening up of service industries such as healthcare, education and training, and cultural tourism, and implement national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises in financial services, government procurement, and subsidy policies; The third is to expand the scale of foreign investment and reinvestment through platforms such as free trade pilot zones, national level economic development zones, and national level high-tech zones; The fourth is to continuously optimize the business environment, continuously improve market expectations, effectively respond to the concerns of foreign-funded enterprises, and ensure that policies are more fair, transparent, and predictable; The fifth is to continue to play the role of the specialized mechanism for major foreign-funded projects, strengthen the guarantee of resources such as land and talent, break down the constraints on the landing of foreign-funded projects, and lay a solid foundation for more foreign-funded enterprises to continue to deeply cultivate the Chinese market and invest and develop in China.

Zhao Jing