From January to April this year, the actual use of foreign capital in the service industry increased by 46.8% year-on-year——
The service industry has become the "main engine" for attracting investment
On May 20th, the Fifth World Intelligence Conference kicked off in Tianjin.
The exhibition area of the conference covers intelligent products and technologies such as scientific research and applications, smart cities and transportation, and smart life, attracting many Fortune 500 companies to participate.
Three foreign-funded institutions such as First Tong Tianrui, First Hong Ruizhi and Capitel Ruizhi successfully settled in the Beijing Free Trade Zone; BNP Paribas, Interactive Brokers, etc. are preparing to establish foreign securities firms in Lujiazui, Shanghai; and the headquarters of the ORIX platform in Japan settled in Shandong Qingdao area of the trade zone... Since the beginning of this year, news of foreign capital gathering in China for development has been flooding.
Among the cited qualification bureaus, modern finance, smart logistics, digital economy, cultural media, and modern service industries such as medical care and elderly care are particularly outstanding.
Statistics show that in recent years, the service industry has accounted for more than 70% of the country's foreign investment, which has become a new growth point.
Why does the service industry become the "main engine" for attracting investment?
What is the development potential and motivation behind it?
Attracting foreign investment is gaining momentum
——In the first 4 months, the actual use of foreign capital in the service industry was 312.94 billion yuan, accounting for 78.8% of the total actual use of foreign capital in the country, a year-on-year increase of 46.8%
Recently, Johnson Controls, which has been deeply involved in the Chinese market for many years, is preparing to establish a new company in Jinan, which will be assigned the function of Shandong regional headquarters.
Che Fei, vice president of government affairs and corporate communications for Johnson Controls Asia Pacific, told this newspaper that the establishment of the new company will be completed in the near future.
However, the “Digital Low-Carbon City Collaborative Innovation Center” proposed by Johnson Controls and Jinan City has been launched, striving to establish an industry-university-research platform as an incubator to innovate and develop green and low-carbon digital products, so as to achieve quantifiable, controllable, and manageable energy conservation in building communities. .
It is worth mentioning that just in April this year, the State Council formally approved the establishment of Jinan’s new and old kinetic energy conversion starting area, where the registration location of the new Johnson Controls company is being established.
"The new company was established around the needs of Jinan's urban construction and economic development. Jinan's development plans in smart buildings, digital cities, and green smart industries are highly compatible with Johnson Controls' solutions and strategic priorities. Both of us I see the huge potential and development space of in-depth cooperation." Che Fei said.
The rapid development of China's economy and society, the continuous release of market potential in the service industry, and the strong demand for open cooperation have formed a huge magnetism for foreign investment in various channels.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to April this year, there were 14,533 newly established foreign-invested enterprises across the country, an increase of 50.2% year-on-year and an increase of 11.5% year-on-year; the actual use of foreign capital was RMB 397.07 billion, an increase of 38.6% year-on-year (excluding banks). , Securities, insurance, the same below), an increase of 30.1% over the same period in 2019.
Among them, the actual use of foreign capital in the service industry was 312.94 billion yuan, accounting for 78.8%, and the amount increased by 46.8% year-on-year.
In fact, driven by a series of opening-up measures, the service industry has been the “main engine” of foreign investment growth for many years.
Statistics show that during the 13th Five-Year Plan period, my country's service industry has absorbed an average annual growth of 4.4% of foreign investment, and its proportion has increased from 69.8% in 2015 to 78.5% in 2020, helping my country become the world's largest foreign inflow country in 2020.
"The practice of reform and opening up over the years has proved that the increase in the absorption of foreign investment in the service industry has led to the optimization and upgrading of my country's industrial structure, better meeting the needs of the people for consumption upgrading, and also making important contributions to stabilizing foreign investment." Director of the Department of Foreign Investment, Ministry of Commerce Zong Changqing said.
Prospects for the development of the service industry are promising
——At present, the added value of my country's service industry accounts for about 55% of GDP, which is about 20 percentage points lower than that of developed countries, and the future has broad space
Why is the service industry’s performance in attracting capital so eye-catching?
Li Jun, director of the Institute of International Service Trade of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that this is due to China’s huge demand in the service industry, especially in the fields of high-tech services and modern services, and on the other hand, because service-oriented multinational companies have corresponding advantages. These companies are optimistic about the development potential of China's service industry.
Market demand is constantly released.
Not long ago, the multinational company Lienshi Group settled in Qingpu, Shanghai as its first elderly care community in China, which became the first step for the group to deploy the elderly care industry in China.
"Considering that this is a market with huge potential, Lianshi hopes to have a try in the Chinese market. In the next 5-10 years, with the change of pension concept, this market will become bigger and bigger." The person in charge said.
The reporter combed and found that in the fields of elderly care, medical care and health services, many foreign-funded enterprises are setting up their branches all over the country.
From the American Charm Garden, the Japanese Museum of Japanese Medicine to the French Ou Baoting, the Dutch Bozuke, etc., they mainly focus on the operation services of the elderly care institutions, or the main community homes, or provide consulting and training to bring more diversified elderly care services and services to the Chinese market. product.
According to the "White Paper on China's Elderly Care Industry Development" of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, it is estimated that by 2030, my country's elderly care industry market can reach 13 trillion yuan.
From pensions, medical care, education to finance, logistics, information, communications, etc., the service industry presents huge potential.
China's development prospects are long-term optimistic.
Many foreign-funded enterprises in the service industry have been developing in China for many years and continue to feel the charm of the Chinese market.
Dehua Angu Life Insurance is a national life insurance legal entity invested by the German Angu Group Co., Ltd. in China and has been in operation for nearly 8 years.
"At present, the development of China's insurance market is still in a period of important strategic opportunities." Relevant person in charge of Dehua Angu Life told this newspaper that, especially in the post-epidemic era, customers' demand for risk protection is increasing, and the Chinese insurance market will continue to lead the global insurance industry. increase.
At the same time, the traditional development model of the industry is no longer sufficient to support sustained and rapid development. Major companies are transforming from "do they have" to "good or not," and the industry is also facing the opportunity for the second take-off of the value engine and continuous transformation and upgrading.
Both the demand and the opportunities come from the changes currently undergoing in the Chinese market.
Zong Changqing pointed out that, on the one hand, the per capita GDP of my country’s 1.4 billion people has exceeded the US$10,000 mark, and the consumption pattern is accelerating the shift from physical consumption to service consumption; on the other hand, the added value of my country’s service industry currently accounts for about GDP 55% of the total, which is about 20 percentage points lower than that of developed countries, and there are problems such as insufficient integration with the manufacturing industry and insufficient development of the modern service industry.
Therefore, the service industry is still the focus of future open development and the key to cultivating new development momentum.
Resolutely expand and open up
——In the past five years, the service industry items in the Negative List of the National Edition have been reduced by 30, and five provinces and cities including Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan, and Chongqing have successively established comprehensive pilot projects for expanding the opening up of service industries.
On the day when China lifted the restrictions on foreign shareholding in securities companies and fund management companies, two global asset management leaders, Lubomai and BlackRock, formally applied for the establishment of a wholly foreign-owned public equity fund company; in the first quarter of this year, the country’s first wholly foreign-owned insurance asset manager The company Allianz Insurance and the country’s first wholly foreign-owned licensed payment company Guofubao settled in Beijing... The acceleration of foreign investment in the service industry is inseparable from the expansion of opening up.
In recent years, China has taken various measures to expand the opening up of the service industry.
According to Zong Changqing, three main areas of work have been carried out: reducing the negative list of foreign investment access.
The national negative list has been reduced from 93 items in 2015 to 33 items in 2020, and 60 items have been reduced. Among them, service industry items have been reduced by 30 items, including items in transportation, value-added telecommunications, financial services and other fields. .
Expand the catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment.
Encouragement items in the national edition have increased from 349 items in 2015 to 480 items in 2020, of which 48 items have been added to the service industry, such as R&D and design, information services, technical services and other fields.
Promote the expansion of comprehensive pilot projects for the opening up of the service industry.
Since the implementation of the pilot program five years ago, Beijing's service industry has absorbed 568.6 billion yuan of foreign capital, accounting for 96.9% of Beijing's total foreign investment and 14.8% of the nation's service industry (excluding banking, securities, and insurance data).
In April this year, the State Council approved the establishment of comprehensive pilot projects for expanding the opening up of service industries in Tianjin, Shanghai, Hainan, and Chongqing.
"Increasing pilot projects is the need to shape new advantages in international competition and cooperation." Zong Changqing said that the service industry has a wide range of opening points and a wide range of categories. It involves not only the overall planning of the producer service industry and the life service industry, but also various new models. The development of new business formats requires multi-dimensional innovation and exploration.
The four provinces and cities in the pilot project have a good foundation for the development of the service industry, with strong regional and industrial representation. Through reform and innovation, the spirit of local initiative can be used to accumulate more replicable and extendable experience in the work, and it will be open to the service industry across the country. Give full play to the role of demonstration.
The addition of new pilots is also a need to strengthen openness and coordination. It will help localities and Beijing's demonstration zone construction to form a tiered arrangement and coordination, and orderly arrange the implementation of pilot policies and experience replication and promotion, and form a comprehensive effect.
The Ministry of Commerce stated that it will promptly summarize and refine the good experience and practices of the pilot areas, and replicate them among the pilot areas or across the country.
It can be expected that the opening up of the service industry will continue to be "new" in the future.
Li Jie