BEIJING,Feb. 22 (Xinhua) -- The American Chamber of Commerce in China (AmCham China) and Bain & Company jointly released On January 30 the China Business Climate Survey Report in Beijing.
The Report shows nearly 60 percent of the surveyed enterprises targeted China as one of the world's top three investment destinations. One third planned to increase their investment in China by more than 10 percent.
The survey of 411 enterprises lasted from October 23 to November 26, 2017, during which Trump visited China. Pessimism about Sino-U.S. relations seems to be fading.
The report suggests that more than 80 percent of member enterprises believed that Sino-U.S. bilateral relations would improve or maintain the status quo, higher than less than 70 percent the previous year. About 36 percent believed that the relations would improve in 2018, far higher than 17 percent in 2017. In 2017, 78 percent of the surveyed enterprises believed that the relations are extremely or very important to their business development, far higher than 64 percent in 2015 and 72 percent in 2016. Technical enterprises and enterprises in other R&D-intensive industries value the impact of the relations most.
During Trump's visit to China in November 2017, the business contracts and two-way investment agreements reached between China and the U.S. involved a total amount of more than 250 billion U.S. dollars, achieving a new record-high in Sino-U.S. and world economic trade history.
The surveyed members were cautiously optimistic about the economy, believing that 'new normal' growth will be sustainable in the foreseeable future and create an opportunity for enterprise expansion, said William Zarit, Chairman of AmCham China, adding that referring to the data, the most inspiring thing is that the gloom over the past years seems to be fading.
To many member enterprises of AmCham China, 2017 saw a slight rebound of their business. About 64 percent of the surveyed member enterprises said that their business revenues grew in 2017, edging up from 55 percent in 2015 and 58 percent in 2016. Industry and resources achieved the highest growth. The surveyed enterprises predicted that China's GDP would grow by 6.3 percent in 2018, higher than 6.1 percent predicted in 2017. More than 50 percent of the surveyed enterprises believed that their industries would grow by more than 5 percent in 2018, while 19 percent expected two-digit growth.
The survey also found that nearly 60 percent of the surveyed enterprises targeted China as one of the world's top three investment destinations, slightly higher than 2016. One third said that they would increase their investment in China by more than 10 percent. 35 percent thought that China's investment environment was improving, higher than 24 percent in 2016. Meanwhile, 46 percent believed that the Chinese government would further open the Chinese market to foreign investors in the coming three years, higher than 34 percent in 2016.
These figures are in line with China's status as the developing country attracting the most foreign investment. China registered record-high foreign capital inflow of some 144 billion U.S. dollars in 2017 to become the world's second-largest foreign capital inflowing country, behind the U.S. only, according to a report released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development on January 23,
“U.S. enterprises are more confident of China's further opening to foreign investors in the coming years, more enterprises are expanding investment in China, and they are positive about the future improvement of U.S.-Sino relations. I think the view is objective and practical,” said China's Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying at a regular press conference on January 30.
Surveys also show that U.S. enterprises hoped that the Chinese government would further enhance regulation equality, predictability and transparency. 75 percent of the surveyed member enterprises felt that foreign enterprises are not as welcome as they were, although the figure was 81 percent in the previous year.
This year marks the 40th year of China's reform and opening-up. China will not shut the door to the outside world since it has already been opened, but will keep it wider and wider. Attracting foreign investment is the important content of China's basic state policy of opening to the outside world. “We will continue to welcome foreign enterprises to China for investment, and create more fair, transparent and predicable business environment for them,” said Hua.
Representative from AmCham China said that U.S. enterprises are more confident that China will further open to foreign investors in the coming years, but some complained about unfair treatment. If the U.S. really takes trade protection measures, China will definitely respond.
Hua stated that China would persistently give play to the decisive role of the market in resource allocation, protect property, especially intellectual property, encourage competition and oppose monopoly, continue to push forward all-round opening-up to the outside world, enormously relax market access, and open service industries, especially finance, wider to the outside world. (Edited by Yang Yifan, yang yifan@xinhua.org)
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