【Guangming Forum】

Author: Zhou Nianli and Liu Bing (researcher and doctoral supervisor of the National Institute of Opening-up of the University of International Economics and Economics and Economics, and a master's degree student of the China WTO Institute of the University of International Economics and Economics)

Recently, when meeting with representatives from the international business community, President Xi Jinping pointed out that China was, is, and is, in the past, is, and in the future, will inevitably be an ideal, safe and promising investment destination for foreign businessmen. Walking with China is walking with opportunities, believing in China is believing in tomorrow, and investing in China is investing in the future. President Xi Jinping’s important speech conveys a clear signal that China firmly expands high-level opening up to the outside world and supports multinational enterprises to invest and do business in China, and has injected strong impetus into promoting win-win economic cooperation between multinational enterprises and China.

As the world's second largest economy, China has a huge market scale and a complete industrial chain system. China is also the only country in the world that has all industrial categories in the United Nations industrial classification. The breadth and depth of the industrial chain provide foreign-invested enterprises with all-round supporting support from raw materials to finished products. The population of more than 1.4 billion and the rapidly growing consumer group have promoted the growth of demand for high-quality goods and services, especially in the fields of high-end consumer goods, electronic products and automobiles, providing a huge market space for foreign-funded enterprises. At the same time, China's booming digital economy ecosystem also provides foreign-funded enterprises with market entry and innovation opportunities, helping them achieve market penetration through local cooperation. Up to now, foreign investment in China has covered 20 industry categories and 115 major categories, and the manufacturing industry covers 31 major categories and 548 minor categories, fully demonstrating China's industrial chain advantages and market attractiveness.

At a time when the global economic landscape is profoundly adjusted, the Chinese government has always been committed to providing a stable, transparent and predictable business environment for foreign-funded enterprises. The "2025 Action Plan for Stabilizing Foreign Investment" issued in February this year clearly defines the relevant content. In summary, on the one hand, we will make "subtraction" in foreign investment access, expand the fields of high-level opening up, including comprehensive opening up of manufacturing, deepening the opening up of the service industry, supporting the implementation of wholly foreign-owned hospitals, value-added telecommunications, biotechnology and other projects, and expand opening-up pilot projects in the fields of telecommunications, medical care, education, etc.; on the other hand, we will make "addition" in the business environment, increase policy support, strengthen service guarantees, and solve practical problems of foreign-funded enterprises in development. In the future, China will form a "1 N" combination of foreign investment policies through supporting policies such as expanding opening-up pilot, optimizing the business environment, and revising the foreign investment industry catalog. These signals clearly convey China's confidence and determination to promote the use of high-quality foreign capital, and provide strong guarantees for foreign-invested enterprises to deepen their cultivation in the Chinese market.

At present, global foreign direct investment has entered the stage of stock competition from traffic competition. The core of stabilizing foreign investment lies in stabilizing stocks. However, some developed countries have promoted the return of high-end manufacturing through investment restrictions on China in key areas, strengthened investment reviews and high subsidies; ASEAN countries have continued to increase in their share of global FDI (International Direct Investment) through low labor, tax incentives and investment incentive policies, which further intensified China's pressure to attract investment. In this regard, we urgently need to further optimize the business environment, enhance the confidence of foreign capital, and stabilize the foreign capital stock. For example, thoroughly implement the "Regulations on Fair Competition Review" and promote the construction of a unified national market. Simplify the approval process, optimize financial services, improve project filing, unblock domestic reinvestment channels for foreign-investment enterprises, and improve the convenience of domestic reinvestment for foreign-investment enterprises. In addition, relying on the high-tech zone and industrial clusters to attract foreign investment, promote cooperation in the "Belt and Road" science and technology parks and cooperation in advanced manufacturing clusters, improve supporting service capabilities, improve industrial chain cooperation, and reduce foreign investment operation costs. At the same time, we will deepen reforms in line with international high-standard economic and trade rules, continue to actively promote the participation of the Comprehensive and Progressive Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement and the Digital Economy Partnership Agreement to create an international first-class business environment.

In recent years, China's investment attraction structure has been continuously optimized, and foreign investment has gradually tilted towards high-tech and service industries. According to statistics, in 2024, the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech manufacturing accounted for 11.7% of the actual use of foreign capital in the country, among which the actual use of foreign capital in medical instruments and equipment manufacturing, professional technical services, and computer and office equipment manufacturing increased by 98.7%, 40.8% and 21.9% respectively. These data show that my country's foreign investment is continuing to increase attraction, and foreign investment is accelerating its flow to high-value-added and high-tech fields, which is highly consistent with the direction of China's high-quality economic development. This requires us to further optimize the investment attraction structure and improve the quality of foreign investment.

Deepen cooperation in industrial science and technology innovation, encourage foreign-invested enterprises to set up R&D centers in high-end manufacturing, artificial intelligence, biomedicine and other fields, and promote technology localization; support foreign-invested enterprises to jointly develop with domestic enterprises and research institutes to form an innovation ecosystem, and attract core technologies to be implemented through tax incentives, R&D subsidies and other policies. Optimize the foreign investment introduction strategy, give priority to attracting high-tech and high-environmental foreign-invested enterprises, encourage them to promote advanced technologies and green production models in new energy, low-carbon technologies and other fields, and strengthen cooperation with domestic enterprises in smart factories, industrial Internet and other fields. Relying on landmark exhibitions such as the China International Trade and Investment Fair and the CIIE, we will create a brand of "Invest in China" and promote exchanges and cooperation between foreign-invested enterprises and domestic markets through diversified mechanisms such as roundtables and bank-enterprise docking, and improve the level of investment facilitation.

In today's today when the global economy is full of uncertainty, China has created broad development space for foreign-invested enterprises with its super-large market, a complete industrial chain system and a continuously optimized policy environment. In the future, China will continue to provide more convenience and support for the development of foreign-funded enterprises in China with a high-level opening-up attitude. For global companies, investing in China is not only an entry into a vibrant market, but also an important choice for growing together with the Chinese economy and winning the future.

"Guangming Daily" (Edit 02, April 3, 2025)