This year's government work report proposed to "expand high-level opening up to the outside world and promote mutual benefit and win-win results." The Central Economic Work Conference proposed to "expand high-level opening up to the outside world" and "create the 'Invest in China' brand."

　　Recently, foreign retail companies have accelerated their business deployment in China: Costco Shenzhen Longhua store opened; Lawson convenience store established its Shandong headquarters and announced that it will cooperate with local retail companies; IKEA expanded investment in China to meet diversified consumption Demand...intensive actions demonstrate the confidence of foreign-invested supermarkets in the continued good development of China's economy.

　　Keep up with consumer demand and improve products and services

　　At the Decathlon Beijing Yuquan Road store, cycling enthusiast Xu Tonghui is shopping for a bicycle: "I am going to change to an aluminum alloy road bicycle in the spring of this year. There are many types of products in the store, and there is also a maintenance area. Professionals will help adjust the bicycle. It is very convenient." Don't worry!" Xu Tonghui is a veritable sports expert who skis in winter and rides bikes in summer. In recent years, he has found that there are more and more cycling enthusiasts around him: "Everyone is becoming more and more professional, and they ride on weekends or in the evening. You can often see people organizing activities in the friend group."

　　Having invested in the Chinese market for more than 20 years, Decathlon has been deeply involved in the sports field and has continuously increased its investment in China. Currently, its product line has been continuously enriched to meet the needs of all levels, from novices to professional sports enthusiasts.

In addition, by building its own factories, intelligent manufacturing and procurement centers, logistics parks, brand centers, etc., Decathlon has realized a full industry chain model in China. Based on this foundation, the company continues to launch its own brand products to meet the increasingly diverse needs of consumers. .

　　For many foreign-funded retail companies, the Chinese market has long become a training ground and touchstone for improving the company's core competitiveness.

From the demand side, as the income level of my country's residents has steadily increased, consumer demand has become more personalized and high-end, and consumers have put forward higher requirements for market supply; from the supply side, after years of development in my country's retail industry, the industrial chain has The supply chain is complete and the industry is fully competitive. Domestic and foreign-funded commercial and supermarket enterprises must keep up with the demand for consumption upgrades and continuously provide better quality goods and services in order to become more competitive in the Chinese market.

　　"Chinese consumers have an increasing demand for sports products and have higher and higher quality requirements, which forces us to speed up the introduction of new products." said Sai Wanzhou, the relevant person in charge of Decathlon China.

　　In December last year, IKEA’s Beijing-Tianjin Customer Distribution Center in Baodi District, Tianjin was officially opened.

As Ingka Group's largest full-category customer distribution center in the Chinese market, the Beijing-Tianjin Customer Distribution Center has a total investment of RMB 492 million, demonstrating IKEA's firm confidence in long-term development in the Chinese market.

"With the continuous changes in customer purchasing behavior and expectations for higher quality services, we are also constantly improving our capabilities to better meet customer needs. The opening of the Beijing-Tianjin Customer Distribution Center is a good opportunity for We can better serve the northern market, which is dominated by the Beijing-Tianjin region." said Ma Silin, the person in charge of IKEA China.

　　In line with the consumption upgrading trend in the Chinese market, IKEA is committed to building a consumer-centered omni-channel retail ecosystem.

The Beijing-Tianjin Customer Distribution Center project serves as IKEA's omni-channel order distribution hub in northern China. It can distribute more than 9,500 IKEA products, realize full-category distribution, and provide consumers with one-time integrated omni-channel goods delivery and more efficient logistics distribution. to bring a better shopping experience.

　　Hyperscale market brings new growth space

　　Daily necessities, coffee and snacks, express delivery... In Nantong, Jiangsu, many citizens have discovered that there are more and more chain convenience stores on the streets.

"Daily needs can basically be solved here. It's close and it's open 24 hours a day. It's very convenient." Xue Wen, a Nantong citizen, is satisfied with the changes around him.

　　"Citizens' rising demand for instant consumption, convenient consumption, and quality consumption is an important reason for the rapid development of convenience stores." The relevant person in charge of the Nantong Municipal Commerce Bureau analyzed.

The rapid rise in consumer demand has brought a broad market to domestic and foreign companies. Statistics show that the number of convenience stores in Nantong City has increased rapidly in more than three years, including dozens of domestic and foreign brands.

　　According to statistics from the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, in 2023, the sales performance of my country's convenience store companies will generally be good, and the number of stores will continue to increase.

In 2023, the urbanization rate of my country's permanent population will be 66.2%, and there is still a lot of room for development and improvement in new urbanization.

As new urbanization advances steadily, it will bring more consumer demand and investment demand, and Chinese and foreign companies will also face more opportunities.

　　At around 12 noon on Saturday, there was a long queue in the baking area of ​​Costco Shenzhen Longhua store. Customers were waiting for freshly baked beef rolls.

"It's the weekend, and a family drove here to do shopping. The food here is in large portions, which is more suitable for families. We eat here as soon as we finish shopping." Li Xiang, who lives in Futian District, said while showing reporters a shopping cart. I packed blueberries, imported milk, chilled mutton skewers, nuts, etc., and also bought the store’s “hot-selling” strawberry bear doll for my children.

　　In early January, Costco’s Shenzhen store opened, attracting a large number of consumers to shop.

The sales volume of the day refreshed the sales data of Costco China stores on the opening day.

　　According to data from the China Chain Store and Franchise Association, there will be about 400 newly opened shopping mall projects in China in 2023; according to statistics, foreign businessmen who have invested and established businesses in China in recent years have achieved a direct investment return rate of about 9% in recent years, which is relatively high internationally. High level; the number of smartphone users and Internet users in China exceeds 1 billion, and any new technology can be quickly promoted in China... A set of data is a true portrayal of China's economic resilience and vitality, and has also become an attraction for foreign businessmen. A strong impetus to expand investment in China.

In January 2024, 4,588 new foreign-invested enterprises were established across the country, a year-on-year increase of 74.4%.

　　Recently, the American Chamber of Commerce in China released the annual "China Business Environment Survey Report" stating that the financial performance of US companies in China, companies' expectations for China's development prospects, and investment intentions in China have all improved in 2023, and most of the companies surveyed will still maintain their presence in China. layout.

　　Zhu Bing, director of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said that China has a very large market with a population of more than 1.4 billion and a middle-income group of more than 400 million. The new journey towards modernization will create huge market opportunities.

　　Expand high-level open and shared development opportunities

　　In addition to being optimistic about my country's economic recovery potential and development prospects, my country has continued to expand its opening up to the outside world and promote trade and investment liberalization and facilitation in recent years, which has also greatly encouraged the enthusiasm of multinational companies to invest in China.

　　On February 22, Lawson Convenience Store, the world's second largest retail chain, established its Shandong headquarters in Jinan. At the same time, it announced that the first batch of stores will be co-branded with Jinan's local new retail leader Yikuai Yinman convenience store, leveraging their respective advantages to jointly build and promote Rapid development.

　　"Shandong has proposed to maintain a high level of openness and attract high-quality investment, which gives us full confidence." Hua Dong, deputy general manager of Lawson Investment Co., Ltd., said, "The choice to settle in Jinan is based on Jinan's location advantages and huge development potential. . Over the years, we have been very optimistic about the development prospects of the Chinese market, and Lawson strives to achieve the goal of 10,000 stores by 2025."

　　"my country continues to promote the reform of the foreign investment system, increase investment promotion, protect the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors, and continuously improve the level of utilization of foreign investment." Cui Fan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said that the key to accelerating the construction of a new development pattern and improving the utilization of foreign investment is Improve the attractiveness of China's ultra-large-scale market to foreign investment and optimize the foreign investment environment.

　　In recent years, my country's negative list for foreign investment access has been continuously reduced. The first negative list for foreign investment access in 2013 had 190 items, and it has been shortened to 31 items in the national version and 27 items in the free trade zone version.

This year we will promote the comprehensive lifting of restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing sector and relax access to telecommunications, medical and other service industries.

At the same time, policies and measures that violate fair competition between domestic and foreign investors must be cleaned up on a regular basis.

Policy initiatives one after another have formed a wider, wider and deeper opening-up pattern, and continue to provide new opportunities for the world with China's new development.

　　On February 28, the Ministry of Commerce held a roundtable meeting for foreign-invested enterprises to introduce the implementation of the "Opinions of the State Council on Further Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment and Enhancing Attracting Foreign Investment".

The Ministry of Commerce stated that although the document was issued only more than half a year ago, with the full cooperation of relevant departments, most measures have been implemented or positive progress has been made.

In the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will work with relevant departments and local governments to continue to promote the accelerated implementation of various measures and listen to the opinions and suggestions of foreign-funded enterprises, conduct a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation, continuously improve the work, and enhance the sense of policy benefits of foreign-invested enterprises.

　　China is a big market and the world is experiencing new opportunities. Under the background of unswervingly promoting high-level opening up to the outside world, more and more foreign-funded enterprises have used real money to cast a "vote of confidence" in the Chinese economy, ride on the express train of China's development, and share the dividends of development. .

　　Luo Shanshan Zhong Zhenyu (Source: People’s Daily)