China has improved the scale and quality of foreign investment (expert interpretation)
■Expert interviewed: Bai Ming, researcher of the International Market Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce
According to Reuters, the Ministry of Commerce of China recently announced that the actual use of foreign capital (FDI) nationwide from January to November was RMB 1042.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.9% (equivalent to US$157.2 billion, a year-on-year increase of 21.4%).
From an industry perspective, the actual use of foreign investment in the service industry was 823.94 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17%; the actual use of foreign investment in the high-tech industry increased by 19.3% year-on-year, of which the high-tech service industry increased by 20.8%, and the high-tech manufacturing industry increased by 14.3%.
In terms of source, the actual investment in countries along the “Belt and Road” and ASEAN increased by 24.7% and 23.7% respectively year-on-year.
China's FDI in the first October was equivalent to US$142.01 billion, a year-on-year increase of 23.4%.
The Ministry of Commerce previously predicted that, unless there are special circumstances, the absorption of foreign investment this year will achieve double-digit growth, and the goal of stabilizing foreign investment for the whole year can be achieved.
Bloomberg News reported that according to HSBC's survey of 2,174 foreign-funded companies, 97% of the surveyed companies indicated that they intend to continue to expand investment in China because China has a huge market, expectations of continued economic growth, and a well-developed supply chain. .
Although international relations are changing, it is clear that multinational companies will continue to explore the value of China-centric growth and investment strategies.
The Ministry of Commerce of China recently announced that the country's actual use of foreign capital has exceeded the trillion yuan mark, and it has handed in a dazzling report card.
At present, the scale and quality of China's attracting foreign investment continues to grow, and the characteristics of attracting foreign investment are notable.
On the one hand, China’s technology for attracting foreign investment is getting higher and higher, and the proportion of foreign investment used by high-tech manufacturing and service industries is further increasing.
The high-tech industry has become the "main engine" for attracting foreign investment.
On the other hand, the attractiveness of central China to foreign investment has gradually increased.
Compared with the eastern region, the cost of various factors in the central region is lower. Compared with the western region, the central region has more complete supporting facilities, and its competitiveness in the foreign investment market continues to increase.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to November 2021, the actual use of foreign capital in eastern, central and western China increased by 15.4%, 25.8% and 13.4% year-on-year respectively.
In addition, the countries along the “Belt and Road” have continuously increased their investment in China, and the trust and recognition of the countries along the route in the Chinese market has continued to increase.
The strong attraction of the Chinese market to foreign investment is the result of a combination of multiple factors.
First, in the international environment where the global new crown pneumonia epidemic continues, the international investment market has shrunk, and overseas investors are eager to seek high-quality investment goals and investment opportunities.
China's epidemic prevention and control have been effective, and the economy has recovered rapidly and developed steadily, which has strengthened the confidence of foreign businessmen in investing in China.
Under the sluggish investment environment in other countries, more overseas investors have turned their attention to China.
Second, China continues to optimize the investment environment, and the level of investment liberalization and facilitation has increased significantly.
In recent years, China has promulgated the Foreign Investment Law and its implementation regulations, abolished the approval and record of the establishment of foreign-invested enterprises and changed the commercial department, replaced it with an information reporting system, established and improved a complaint work mechanism for foreign-invested enterprises and a foreign investment service system, and effectively protected overseas investment The legitimate rights and interests of the foreign businessmen are a reassurance.
Third, China's market access space is increasing, and market access is continuously relaxed.
China has basically lifted restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector, relaxed restrictions on foreign investment access in agricultural fields such as seed industry, and at the same time continues to expand the opening up of service industries such as finance, telecommunications, construction, distribution, tourism, and transportation, and serve in the WTO. Among the 160 sub-sectors of the trade classification, China has opened nearly 120.
China actively promotes institutional opening up, implements a pre-access national treatment plus a negative list management system, and uses a negative list to comprehensively and standardize the access restrictions for foreign investment.
China has successively introduced special management measures (negative list) for foreign investment access in the national version, the free trade pilot zone version, and the Hainan free trade port version. The negative list has been reduced from 190 items in the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone in 2013 to the national level in 2020 33 items and 30 items in the Pilot Free Trade Zone, Hainan Free Trade Port has only 27 items on the negative list.
Under the current international situation, the international investment market is still facing a certain degree of uncertainty.
On the one hand, although the global epidemic prevention and control situation is still severe, with the pace of economic recovery in some countries, more countries have introduced relevant policies to attract foreign investment, and international investors will face more opportunities and choices.
On the other hand, some countries restrict their own capital from flowing into other countries, or restrict specific industries in which capital can invest overseas.
These factors have brought certain challenges to China's future situation in attracting foreign investment.
However, it must be emphasized that the door to China's opening up has always been open, and the Chinese government has continuously improved policies related to attracting foreign investment, optimized the foreign investment environment, and provided good conditions and reliable guarantees for foreign investment in China. The Chinese market has always been a high-quality choice for foreign investment.
In the future, China should promote the aligning of foreign investment policies with industrial policies. In the digital economy, medical care, elderly care, new energy, biological and new medicine and other important industries that the government vigorously promotes, it should increase its efforts to encourage foreign investment in the form of a list of encouragement for foreign investment. Foreign investment, attract foreign investment to help industrial development, promote the optimization and upgrading of China's industrial structure, and share the development dividends and huge opportunities of the Chinese market with overseas investors.
(Reporter Gao Qiao interviewed and compiled)