Aerial photo taken on Dec. 28, 2020 shows the collaborative development center at Beijing-Tianjin Zhongguancun Tech Town in Baodi District of Tianjin, north China. (Xinhua/Li Ran)
BEIJING, Jan. 25 (Xinhua) -- China's vigorous economic development in 2020 and the continuous release of the opening-up policy at the beginning of 2021 have further stimulated the expectation of foreign investment on the Chinese market, reported Economic Information Daily Sunday.
Some major foreign-invested projects have been launched in many places across China, mainly concerning with global Research & Design (R&D) centers, headquarters projects and supply chain operations centers.
Foreign companies said they are optimistic about the great potential and resilience of China's economy, and are more optimistic about the benefits unleashed by China's opening up, and will pay more attention on China in the future.
The PepsiCo's Chinese headquarters was recently settled in Songjiang District of Shanghai, while a Shanghai's local supply chain operator vows to invest 700 million yuan to build a supply chain operation center in the district.
At the same time, some important foreign-funded projects will be located in Shanghai Hongqiao Business District, including the Outlet Limited headquarters project, Danieli Metallurgical Equipment Co., Ltd. regional headquarters, and the global furnishing giant IKEA shopping mall.
On January 15, a total of 62 foreign-invested projects with investment valuing 11.85 billion U.S. dollars were settled in Shanghai, with contracts covering artificial intelligence, biomedicine, integrated circuits, digital economy, fashion consumer goods and other industries.
It is noted that in 2020, there were 51 new regional headquarters of multinational corporations and 20 foreign-funded R&D centers launched in Shanghai, upgrading the core functions of the city.
Foreign-funded enterprises have become an important driving force for China's economic development, as well as the main focus of local support. Recently, China's southern island province of Hainan have launched measures to expand opening up and increase efforts to attract foreign investment.
For example, version 2020 of the negative list of foreign investment access of Hainan Free Trade Port will be implemented on February 1, 2021, and the list will be further opened to value-added telecommunications, education, business services, manufacturing, mining and other fields.
Gao Feng, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), said on January 21 that at present, the ministry, together with Hainan Province and relevant departments, is actively promoting the work related to the negative list of cross-border service trade in Hainan Free Trade Port (FTP).
Gao said that the list will be the first negative list in the field of cross-border trade in services, which will further expand market access in the area of trade in services and help Hainan FTP's further opening up.
Zong Changqing, official with the MOC said that China will continue to stimulating consumption and domestic market expansion, as well as provide more business opportunites to foreign companies and help stabilize the world economy.
Specifically, Zong said that China will continue to expand the opening up to the outside world, innovate the ways of attracting investment in the industrial chain, raise the level of the open platform, and improve the service guarantee system for foreign investment.
It is noted that a national conference on foreign investment will be held recently, when the objectives, tasks, and measures of foreign investment for the whole year will be further clarified, and more benefits will also be put on the ground.
Zhang Yufeng, president of Honeywell China, a high-tech company, said that Honeywell will continue to increase investment in China and cooperate with partners to further enhance its R&D capabilities to serve a broad overseas market for technologies and products developed in China.
Global leading electric company, Schneider Electric is also optimistic about the prospect of the Chinese market. Yin Zheng, executive vice president and president of Schneider Electric in China, said that the company will continue to increase its R&D investment in China in the future, and further strengthen Schneider Electric's industrial chain and local supply chain layout in China.
Official data show that foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.2 percent year on year to 999.98 billion yuan in 2020.
China is taking measures to promote the construction of a new development pattern and expand opening up to the outside world, and constantly optimize the business environment, encouraging more foreign-funded enterprises to pay more attention to the Chinese market, according to the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation (AITEC).
(Edited by Jiang Feifan with Xinhua Silk Road, 346129473@qq.com)
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