Steps to relax investor access will continue

Official says protection of foreign companies’ legitimate rights and interests to be enhanced

China will continue to relax market access for global businesses and accelerate the pace of negotiations with various partners to seal more free trade deals, in order to further deepen its integration into the global economy, government officials said on Monday.

The government will speed up the formulation of the negative list for 2021, as part of its ongoing efforts to continuously open the country’s vast domestic market to global investors, and it will enhance the protection of the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment, said Commerce Minister Wang Wentao.

A negative list refers to special administrative measures regarding the access of foreign investment in certain industries or areas.

At a news conference in Beijing, Wang said the government will give full play to the role of the complaint mechanism in accordance with the law. It will also effectively implement the Foreign Investment Law and other related regulations and improve support systems, as well as create a market- and law-based business environment for foreign companies, he said.

Wang Shouwen, vice-minister of commerce, said China aims to sign more free trade agreements while upgrading existing FTAs to further its opening-up. The country will step up efforts to form a high-standard free trade network that starts with neighboring economies, covers Belt and Road Initiative-related economies and has a global reach.

He said that for the next step, China will further upgrade existing free trade agreements, including those with Singapore and South Korea, while accelerating negotiations for new agreements, such as a ChinaJapan-South Korea pact, a ChinaGulf Cooperation Council deal and agreements with Norway and Israel.

Considering the momentum of foreign direct investment flowing into China’s vast market, multinational corporations are confident that they can harness the new growth opportunities presented by China’s long-term policy guarantees as well as its complete supply chain and lucrative domestic market, said Chen Jian’an, vice-chairman of the Beijing-based China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

All the evidence shows that a global economic decoupling from China is not appearing, as Seattlebased coffee chain Starbucks plans to expand its store numbers to 6,000 across China by 2022, and Swiss conglomerate ABB Group will launch operations at a $150 million robotics factory in the first quarter of next year.

Thanks to continuous efforts on higher-level opening-up and effective control of COVID-19, China’s actual use of foreign capital reached 672.19 billion yuan ($103.6 billion) in the first seven months of the year, surging 25.5 percent year-on-year and up 26.1 percent from the same period in 2019, according to Ministry of Commerce data.

In addition to China’s move to gradually liberalize its financial system, the sources of foreign direct investment inflows into China are becoming increasingly diversified,

said Li Jun, a researcher at Beijingbased Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. Li said this comes as the nation and its partners are pushing for the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement to become effective next year and as China prepares to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.

The total foreign trade value of foreign-invested companies jumped by 16.7 percent to 7.76 trillion yuan between January and July this year, accounting for 36.4 percent of China’s export and import volume during this period, according to General Administration of Customs data.

BSH Home Appliances, a wholly owned subsidiary of Bosch Group, a German industrial conglomerate, not only saw its sales revenue rise 7 percent in China in 2020, but also achieved major breakthroughs in product design, production and e-commerce. It has also seized the opportunity from a significantly growing demand in the country for dishwashers and dryers.

“We are now increasingly investing in finding and innovating the next big thing that uniquely addresses Chinese consumer needs,” said Alexander Dony, president for China of BSH. “So we believe that there is still an unbelievable potential for China to develop.”

Dony said China is rapidly emerging as an innovation engine, not just for China, but increasingly for the rest of the world, and BSH is trying to use this to full advantage.

“That is powered by a business environment that is increasingly supportive of companies investing in research and development facilities, in manufacturing footprint,” he added.

Tony Cheung, president for China at AB Sugar, a British sugar manufacturer that operates 27 plants in 10 economies across the world, said he believes that the deepening of China’s opening-up, from the Foreign Investment Law launched in 2020 to the new “dual circulation” growth paradigm, has further improved the environment for connections with foreign markets and for companies to exchange highquality resources and innovate collaboratively.

Apart from discovering that consumers in southern China consume more sugar than in the north, the executive said the company will continue to invest in the area of digitalization, green agriculture and production expansion in the country in the coming years.

Cheung said that with the increase in population and the economic improvements, sugar consumption has increased steadily and is expected to continue to do so.

We are now increasingly investing in finding and innovating the next big thing that uniquely addresses Chinese consumer needs.”

Alexander Dony, president for China of BSH Home Appliances