Foreign Companies Keen to Continue Investment in China

A report from chinadaily.com.cn on Jan. 31st, 2024:

Multinational corporations will continue to ramp up investment in China this year as the country’s immense consumption potential and innovation capabilities have bolstered their confidence, market observers and business leaders said on Tuesday.

They are optimistic because they anticipate that China’s growth will outpace most major economies this year, despite facing headwinds. They attribute this to the improvement of the nation’s competitiveness and changes in the international landscape, noting that the Chinese market today serves as both a huge consumer market and a well-developed innovation hub.

Zhang Wei, vice-president of the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that foreign investors are increasingly valuing China’s modern industrial infrastructure, innovative ecosystem and access to research talent.

That sentiment is in line with the latest data. Over 80 percent of foreign companies expressed satisfaction with China’s business environment in 2023, while more than 90 percent found the Chinese market appealing, according to a survey released on Tuesday by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

The survey conducted by the country’s top foreign trade and investment promotion agency also showed that nearly 70 percent of these companies expressed optimism about the market’s outlook for the next five years.

Addressing a monthly news conference in Beijing, Yang Fan, a spokeswoman for the CCPIT, said that more than 90 percent of the surveyed foreign companies anticipate that their investment profitability in China will either remain stable or increase over the next five years.

China’s actual foreign direct investment remained at a historical high level and amounted to 1.13 trillion yuan ($158 billion) in 2023, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.