According to the latest data released by the Ministry of Commerce, in the first 11 months of this year, the actual use of foreign capital in the country was 10,403300 million yuan, a year-on-year decrease of 100%。Since the beginning of this year, China's foreign investment has changed from increasing to decliningIs there still an advantage in attracting foreign investment in the Chinese market?In response to the concerns of the outside world, the reporter recently interviewed industry insiders.
From the perspective of the external environment, global cross-border investment is sluggish, and the scale of China's investment is still at a historical high.
Industry insiders generally pointed out that the current complex external environment has made it difficult and challenging to attract foreign investment.
According to a report by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the world economy has slowed down and external demand has been sluggish due to factors such as the Russia-Ukraine conflict, high food and energy prices, rising debt pressure, and financial turmoil. In 2022, the scale of global cross-border direct investment decreased by 12 percent year-on-year4%, and will still face great downward pressure in 2023.
Geopolitical risks have risen significantly, some countries have promoted the repatriation of industries and capital, and the impact of China-related investment restrictions should not be underestimated. Cui Fan, a professor at the University of International Business and Economics, said.
The United States issued an executive order on foreign investment review, restricting U.S. companies from investing in China in semiconductors, artificial intelligence, quantum computing and other fieldsUnder the lobbying of the United States, the European Union issued the "Economic Security Strategy", and Japan promulgated the Law on the Promotion of Economic Security, and successively tightened the review of foreign investment to strictly prevent the outflow of capital, technology and intellectual property rights in key areas ......At present, some countries are forcibly promoting "decoupling and breaking the chain" in disregard of economic laws, while developed and emerging economies have introduced large-scale preferential policies, and international competition for attracting investment has become more and more intense.
The impact and impact of the epidemic have not yet subsided, which is also an important reason for the fluctuation of investment.
The epidemic has blocked the offline inspection and exchange of multinational companies, affecting investment decisions. Wang Xiaohong, a senior researcher at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, said that since the beginning of this year, the number of new foreign-funded enterprises in China has grown rapidly, with 48,078 new foreign-invested enterprises established in the first 11 months, a year-on-year increase of 362%, but foreign investment, especially greenfield investment, will have a long process, during which foreign capital generally arrives according to the progress of project construction, and data fluctuations are normal.
Against the backdrop of multiple complexities, it has not been easy for China to attract foreign investment in recent years.
From January to November last year, China's actual use of foreign capital reached 11,560900 million yuan, the highest level in the same period in history. The person in charge of the Department of Foreign Investment of the Ministry of Commerce said that although the scale of attracting foreign investment from January to November this year decreased year-on-year, it was still at a historical high.
The construction site of the German Heraeus special light source project in Tiexi District, Shenyang City (taken on August 28, 2023, drone**) Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Yang Qing.
From the perspective of the structure of investment: China has become a stage for testing and sharpening the competitiveness of enterprises.
Since the reform and opening up, China's scale of attracting foreign investment has reached a high level, ranking second in the world for six consecutive years.
As the scale of foreign investment has grown to a high level, the growth rate of foreign investment has gradually slowed down. Zhang Fei, deputy director of the Foreign Investment Research Institute of the Ministry of Commerce Research Institute, said.
Zhang Fei cited a set of data: before 2000, the average annual growth rate of China's foreign investment exceeded 20%;From 2000 to 2010, the growth rate was still relatively fast, but with the increase of the base, the average annual growth rate has slowed to about 10%;From 2011 to 2022, it has basically entered a period of moderate growth, with an average annual growth rate of only 39%。
It is worth noting that behind the slowdown in the growth rate of attracting foreign investment, the structure of investment attraction is qualitatively improving.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce, in the first 11 months of this year, China's high-tech industry attracted 3,866 investment500 million yuan, accounting for 37 percent of the actual use of foreign capital2%, an increase of 1 compared to the full year of 20221 percentage point.
In recent years, South Korea's Samsung Electronics has successively closed its mobile phone, computer, and TV factories in China, shifted its production capacity to Vietnam, India and other countries, and accelerated the layout of high-tech industries such as chips, OLED displays, and new energy batteries in China, and the proportion of high-tech industries in its total investment in China has increased from 50% to 80%.
With the adjustment of the domestic industrial structure, the rise of labor costs, the weakening of low-cost advantages, and the gradient transfer of some labor-intensive industries due to changes in comparative advantages, this is the result of changes in China's economic development stage and changes in factor endowments, and is a normal behavior that conforms to the law. Wang Xiaohong said.
Industry insiders pointed out that in recent years, in many fields such as household appliances, communication equipment, and construction machinery, there have been cases of foreign-funded enterprises withdrawing from the Chinese market under competitive pressure. In the face of fierce market competition, some companies may be cautious in their investment decisions due to risk considerations. However, powerful companies will not easily give up the Chinese market.
Tesla's energy storage gigafactory project was officially launched, the main body of BMW Brilliance's sixth-generation power battery project was completed, and Schneider Electric set up an AI innovation lab in Beijing ......Since the beginning of this year, many foreign-funded enterprises have increased their investment in China, accelerating the upgrading of the structural system, the innovation of technological paths, and the optimization of development models in the direction of high-end, intelligent and green.
In recent years, a series of policies to stabilize foreign investment have been introduced one after another to continuously improve the quality and level of foreign investment: the negative list for foreign investment access has been continuously reduced, the new version of the negative list for foreign investment access in the pilot free trade zone has achieved zero items in the manufacturing industry, and the service industry has been continuously expandedThe number of new entries in the catalogue of encouraged foreign investment industries in the new version has reached a record high, and a number of high-tech manufacturing items have been addedEncourage foreign investment in the establishment of R&D centers ......
The Chinese market has become a stage for testing and sharpening the competitiveness of enterprises. Cui Fan said.
On December 22, in Tesla's Shanghai Gigafactory, a Tesla electric car was tested for on-board electronic equipment before leaving the factory. Photo by Xinhua News Agency reporter Fang Zhe.
From the perspective of development prospects, there are still many favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment.
On a broader scale, in the first 11 months of this year, the UK, France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and Australia saw year-on-year increases in actual investment in China. 3% (including investment data through the Freeport). Since the beginning of this year, a number of senior executives of foreign companies have visited China intensively and said: "The Chinese market is not an option, but a must. ”
Industry insiders pointed out that looking forward to the future, China still has many favorable conditions for attracting foreign investment
With a population of more than 1.4 billion and the world's largest middle-income group, the trend of steady expansion of consumption scale, continuous optimization of structure, and continuous enrichment of business formats has not changedThere is a complete industrial system, a complete industrial chain, an increasingly modern infrastructure system, and the industrial supporting capacity and integration advantages are still prominentThe construction of a new development pattern is being accelerated, and foreign-funded enterprises are playing a role as a bridge in connecting domestic and international circulation and optimizing the allocation of resource elements.
* In the deployment of the nine key tasks for next year, the Economic Work Conference emphasized the need to "expand high-level opening up", "relax market access for telecommunications, medical and other service industries, benchmark international high-standard economic and trade rules, and earnestly solve problems such as cross-border data flow and equal participation in procurement", and the signal of steadily expanding institutional opening-up is clear.
Make every effort to implement the "24 Articles for Stabilizing Foreign Investment";Restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing industry will be lifted in an all-round way, and the opening up of service industries such as telecommunications and medical care will be expandedActively respond to the demands of foreign-funded enterprises, and further facilitate the ...... of personnel exchanges between China and foreign countries on the basis of the recently announced unilateral visa exemption policy, mutual visa exemption arrangement, and accelerated resumption of international flightsA series of policy measures have stepped up efforts to attract and utilize foreign investment, effectively boosting the confidence of foreign investment in China.
It is believed that with the implementation of these practical measures, the environment for foreign investors to operate in China will become better and better. Shu Jueting, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said that it is believed that more foreign-funded enterprises will choose to "invest in China", grasp the "opportunity China", and achieve common development with "open China". (Reporter Xie Xiyao, Pan Jie).