China’s first wholly foreign-owned vehicle manufacturing project, Tesla’s Shanghai Super Factory, recently launched its vehicle export business. The Chinese-made Model 3 was exported to Europe for the first time and sold to Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Portugal, Switzerland and other countries. The picture shows the Tesla Model 3 that is being exported to Europe taken in the Waigaoqiao Port District of Shanghai.
A few days ago, the head of the Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce gave a special introduction on the situation of attracting foreign investment in the first three quarters, and answered reporters’ questions on hot issues. The latest data shows that from January to September, the actual use of foreign capital in the country was 718.81 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 5.2%; it was equivalent to US$103.26 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.5% (excluding banking, securities, and insurance). , The cumulative index of RMB “double turn positive”.
Analysts believe that with China’s overall planning of epidemic prevention and control and economic and social development to achieve increasingly significant results, the macro economy has steadily rebounded, and China’s attraction to global economic entities has become stronger.
Overcoming business in China against the trend
In September, the actual use of foreign capital was 99.03 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.1%; from January to September, 26,367 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established nationwide; in the third quarter, 19 provinces and cities achieved positive growth in foreign investment… Not attractive, the facts are the best proof.
Zong Changqing, Director of the Department of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in the first three quarters of this year, China’s absorption of foreign investment mainly showed three characteristics: First, the overall trend of foreign investment absorption has stabilized; second, the structure of foreign investment absorption has been further optimized; third, foreign investment confidence has stabilized. it is good.
“Foreign-invested companies have changed from waiting and watching at the beginning of the epidemic to increasing capital. A large number of large projects such as BMW, Daimler, Siemens, Toyota, LG, ExxonMobil, BASF have increased capital and expanded production in China. 1-9 The monthly reinvestment of foreign-invested corporate profits in US dollars increased by 25.5% year-on-year.” Zong Changqing said that under normal circumstances, the current growth trend is expected to continue in the next three months, and the goal of stabilizing foreign investment throughout the year is expected to be achieved.
Behind the data are the actual actions of foreign companies
On August 26, the global biopharmaceutical giant Bayer Group announced the launch of a prescription drug Beijing factory capacity improvement project to meet the future demand for Bayer’s high-quality drugs in the Chinese market. The project investment amount exceeds 50 million euros. “This project has not only become another milestone in Bayer’s development in China, but also a new starting point for us to provide high-quality medicines to more Chinese patients. The increase in capital and production in China fully demonstrates Bayer’s firm commitment and confidence.” Bayer Group Said Jiang Wei, President of China.
On September 26, Ford Motor Company’s world’s first pioneer pure electric SUV “MustangMach-E” chose to make its debut at the Beijing Auto Show. Ford Motor believes that China, as the world’s most important automotive market and the driving center of new energy vehicle innovation technology, has always been an important part of Ford Motor’s global electrification strategy. The official debut of the new car in China is an important measure for Ford to further deepen the “more Ford, more Chinese”.
“Foreign capital withdrawal theory” is self-defeating
The actual actions of foreign-funded enterprises have made the “foreign capital withdrawal theory” self-defeating.
“China’s market is open. Foreign-funded companies enter and exit each year, and their investment increases and decreases. These are normal market behaviors and conform to market laws. But from the overall situation, more inflows, less outflows, and more More and less. Year after year, not only the total amount of foreign investment attracted by my country is increasing, but also the structure is optimizing and the quality is improving. This year of the epidemic is no exception.” Zong Changqing said.
Why can China always maintain a strong foreign investment attraction? For this, Zong Changqing summarized several reasons.
- The first macroeconomic recovery. China’s economic growth in the first three quarters of the world has turned from negative to positive. The international and domestic comparisons are obvious, fully demonstrating the resilience and vitality of China’s economy, and fundamentally stabilizing the expectations and confidence of foreign investors in China. Many foreign-funded enterprises regard China as a “safe haven” for multinational investment.
- Continued reform and opening up. Since the beginning of this year, China has issued 10 new policies for stabilizing foreign investment twice, released a new version of the negative list of the country and the pilot free trade zone, established the Hainan Free Trade Port, added 3 pilot free trade zones, and further promoted the opening up of financial and other service industries…1— In September, foreign investment in China’s service industry increased by 15%, accounting for 77.9%.
- Continuously optimized business environment. The Foreign Investment Law and its regulations were formally implemented, the approval and filing of foreign-funded enterprises in the commercial sector were completely cancelled, the complaint measures for foreign-funded enterprises were introduced, and the business environment was continuously optimized. According to a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China, member companies believe that the investment environment has improved by 12% over last year.
Continue to open up “gravity” strengthened
Foreign capital is optimistic about China, not only because of the current steady economic recovery, but also because of the long-term opportunities brought by the continuous deepening of reforms and the full expansion of opening up.
“The further opening of China’s financial industry is a major opportunity for companies like Luxembourg International Bank. In the future, Luxembourg International Bank looks forward to strengthening cooperation with more Chinese companies and will advance the plan to establish a business organization in China.” Said Wang Ren, chief representative of the Beijing Representative Office of the International Bank of Luxembourg.
Richard Griffith, an expert in economic history at the International Asia Research Institute in the Netherlands, said that China’s epidemic prevention and control has achieved major strategic results, the resumption of work and production has achieved positive results, and the policy of continuous expansion and opening up has been effective. In the long run, this will further enhance the confidence of foreign investors in China.
Zong Changqing told our reporter that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will continue to thoroughly implement the Party Central Committee and the State Council’s decision to “stabilize the basic foreign investment in foreign trade”, adhere to the bottom line thinking, improve the response plan, continue to increase work efforts, and strive to achieve comprehensive The goal of stabilizing foreign investment in the year.
Specifically, there are four main areas of work: continue to focus on the implementation of policies; focus on opening up; focus on services for foreign-funded enterprises; and focus on optimizing the business environment. For example, in terms of opening to the outside world, the “Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment” will be accelerated to expand the scope of preferential policies for foreign investment; implementation of Beijing’s plan to build a comprehensive demonstration zone for the expansion of the national service industry, and increase comprehensive pilots for the expansion of the service industry nationwide.