Lu Ya’nan, People’s Daily
China maintained steady growth of its foreign direct investment (FDI) this year despite the global investing downturn.
The FDI inflow of the country rose 2.6 percent in the first 11 months of this year, ranking the second in value worldwide.
China’s fixed-asset investmentgrew 5.2 percentin the same period from a year ago, flat with the rate in the first 10 months of 2019.
On the morning of Nov.23, BASF (Guangdong) Verbund Site Project officially commenced on Donghai Island of Zhanjiang, south China’s Guangdong Province. With a total investment of $10 billion, the project represents the German chemical giant’s largest foreign investment so far, and will be the third-largest BASF site in the world.
“The petrochemical project of BASF is the first wholly foreign-funded large-scale integrated petrochemical project in China. It marks a new level of China-Germany cooperation in themanufacturing industry,”Meng Wei, spokesperson ofChina’s National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said at a recent press conference.
The number of large-scale foreign-owned projects worth billions and even tens of billions of U.S. dollars has increased, which is a distinctive feature of China’s foreign investment this year, Meng introduced.
U.S. automaker Tesla’s gigafactory in Shanghai is also Tesla’s largest foreign investment project, Meng said, adding that the gigafactorystarted construction in Jan. and began production near the end of 2019.
Many Internet users hailed the construction progress as “China speed”, said Meng, noting it fully demonstrates the effective combination of enterprises’aspirations for investmentand the administrative efficiency of the Chinese government.
“It’s believed that a number of large-scale foreign-funded new projects in such fields as new energy, new-type petrochemicals, and electronic information will settlein China in the near future,” said Meng.
Rapid progress in construction of large-scale foreign-funded projects has shown foreign investors’ strong confidence in China’s development, noted Meng, stressing that the NDRC will continue making efforts to optimizeenvironment for foreign investment so as to further boost progress in China’s endeavor to promote a new round of opening-up.
The NDRC will make joint efforts with relevant departments to facilitate the implementation of China’s new foreign investment law and supporting regulations and policies, Meng introduced.
The foreign investment law will come into effect from Jan. 1, 2020, together with the implementation of the recently adopted draft regulation on implementing the foreign investment law.
The new foreign investment law and regulation will provide better protection and services, and guarantee a fairer market for foreign investors.
Next year, China will amend its negative lists for foreign investment market access again to further expand opening-up, said Meng.She explained that the country will allow wholly foreign funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, place no restriction other than the negative lists, and ensure national treatment for foreign-funded enterprises.
Besides, China will continue deepening reform in delegating powers, enhancing regulation and strengthening public services for foreign investments by improving management systems, simplifying procedures for examination and approval, and providing better services for the implementation of foreign-funded projects, Meng noted.
“It’s believed that with the implementation of these new measures, China will further optimize environment for foreign investment, facilitate foreign investment, and attract more and more foreign-funded projects,”Meng said.
前11月中国引资规模保持全球第二位
人民日报记者陆娅楠
12月16日公布的11月经济数据显示，前11月，中国固定资产投资同比增长5.2%，增速与1—10月持平。稳投资、稳外资现状如何？还有哪些后劲？17日，国家发改委新闻发言人孟玮在12月份新闻发布会上作出回应。
11月23日上午，投资总额达100亿美元的巴斯夫（广东）一体化生产基地，在广东湛江东海岛正式启动。该项目是巴斯夫集团迄今为止最大规模的对外投资项目，建成后将成为巴斯夫在全球的第三大一体化生产基地。
“巴斯夫石化基地项目，是我国首个外商独资大型石化一体化项目，标志着中德两国在制造业领域的合作再上新台阶。”孟玮说。
今年以来，在全球对外投资持续低迷的背景下，中国吸引外资依然保持了稳定增长态势，1—11月同比增长2.6%，引资规模保持全球第二位。
“今年引资的一个重要特点，就是几十亿甚至百亿美元级大型外资项目增多。”孟玮介绍，上海特斯拉电动汽车项目也是特斯拉在海外最大的投资项目，今年初动工、今年底投产，被不少网友称之为“中国速度”，这也充分体现了企业投资意愿和政府行政效率的有效结合。“相信今后一段时间，还会有一批新能源、新型石化、电子信息等领域的外资大项目陆续落地。”
孟玮表示，外资大项目的快速推进，显示了外资对中国发展前景的强劲信心。下一步，继续推动优化外商投资环境，推进中国新一轮对外开放取得积极进展，发改委将会同有关方面主要做好三方面工作。
做好《外商投资法》及配套法规实施工作。《外商投资法》将于明年1月1日起正式实施，近日刚刚审议通过的《中华人民共和国外商投资法实施条例（草案）》也将与《外商投资法》同步配套实施，新的外资法律法规体系将为投资者提供更有力的保护、更高效的服务、更公平的市场。
进一步扩大对外开放。明年，我国将再次修订外资准入负面清单，在更多领域允许外商独资经营，清单之外不能设限，保障外资企业国民待遇。
继续促进投资便利化。我国将继续深化利用外资领域“放管服”改革，完善管理体制，简化审批程序，做好外资项目落地服务。
“相信随着这些新举措的实施，我国外商投资环境会进一步优化，外商投资便利化程度会进一步提高，会有越来越多的外资项目落地中国。”孟玮说。
