In the first eight months of 2017, Yunnan Province approved 109 new foreign-funded projects, 38 percent more than in the same period of the previous year, with the total contracted value of 1.36 billion U.S. dollars, 39.3 percent more than in the same period of the previous year. The amount of foreign capital put in place in the first half of 2017 was 612 million U.S. dollars, increasing by 21.85 percent year on year, ranking the 16th in the country and the 3rdin growth rate.
Sun Yan, deputy director of Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province, said that compared with developed provinces, Yunnan still has the problems of limited amount of foreign capital, irrational industrial structure and regional distribution.
In October 2016, the province promoted the implementation of the reform of foreign investment examination and approval procedures, changing the system into the practice of putting on record for the establishment of foreign-funded enterprises and for the alteration of registration items for projects not covered by the special management measures (negative list) provided by the state and delegated the power of record filing to 34 foreign investment terminals in the province, covering all the 16 prefectures, cities and state-level development parks and zones.
An official from the foreign investment management section of Department of Commerce of Yunnan Province said that, from October 2016, the examination and approval of enterprises were done locally. From October 2017, the province began a pilot project of introducing the practice of all-in-one certificate, even doing away with record filing. Up to the present, 404 foreign-funded enterprises have completed their establishment procedures and alteration of registration items. Among them, 380 fall into the filing management, with the filing materials in paper changing into electronic documents, greatly reducing the categories of materials. The time limit for handling these matters has been shortened to three working days.
Dong Peiqin, general manager of Wal-Mart Yunnan (China) said: "At present, Wal-Mart has invested in 12 prefectures and cities and opened 29 outlets. Three more will be opened in the latter half of 2017. After the introduction of the filing system, enterprises do not need to go through so many commercial departments. The all-in-one license system has greatly simplified the formalities."
In 2017, the Kunming Baker Norton Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd (KBN) had invested in an industrial hemp plantation project. Zhang Li, secretary of the board of the company said:"It is very quick to have the project approved, saving a lot of time and human cost. But in terms of human resources, Yunnan still lacks competent personnel."
Miao Huaiyu, president of Yunnan Foreign-funded Enterprises Association and general manager of Kunming Tadiran Telecom Equipment Co. Ltd. said: "Now Yunnan is eager to attract the world top 500 to invest in the region, but it is really costly to have large enterprises here. Why not try another way – attracting medium and small-sized enterprises that are purely green, without pollution and have no requirements for land to invest in Yunnan. On the one hand, the province will have solid tax revenue and on the other hand, it can ease the employment problem. Foreign-funded enterprises are very cautious to invest in Yunnan. They will observe whether the projects they invest are close to the general public and whether they have the geographical advantage."
The current situation shows that Yunnan has invested many human, financial and material resources, but why it has found it difficult to attract foreign investment? Prof. Shi Benzhi of the Economics College of Yunnan University said, although Yunnan is rich in natural resources, its advantages in natural resources and its geographical location have not been really translated into economic advantage. In general, its resources are special but dispersed and weak and its development cost is high. There is advantage, but no potential, lacking core competition power. There is abundance but no richness, failing to turn it into real gold and silver. The quality of human resources is poor, lacking the factors for high level development.
Shi said, first, limited by the development level and the small development base, together with relatively mono-structure of the industry, the existing resources and industrial base do not tally with the foreign investment; secondly, the cost of logistics in Yunnan is high, as it is far from the central market of the inland, the overflowing effect of industries is limited. Foreign-funded enterprises do not match the environment of the province. Thirdly, there is a big gap in business facilitation and business-friendliness. There also exists the competition with related countries and neighboring provinces.
Shi said that the investment promotion ways need to be strengthened. It is necessary to do a solid work in project feasibility studies in screening, discussing and spreading.
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