By He Yin, People’s Daily
Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 11.6 percent year on year to 102.28 billion yuan ($16.12 billion) in January, according to statistics recently released by the country’s Ministry of Commerce.
It herald another “bumper year” for China’s FDI inflow after the country’s actual use of FDI exceeded one trillion yuan for the first time and achieved the first double-digit growth in recent decade in 2021.
The Chinese market, with strong resilience and vitality, is constantly providing important opportunities for global economic development, despite restricting factors against the recovery of the world economy.
China has a population of 1.4 billion, including over 400 million middle-income earners. It boasts a gigantic market that comes with huge potential and is continuously upgrading. The income of the Chinese people has been on a steady rise after the country achieved a complete victory in the fight against poverty, built a moderately prosperous society in all respects and embarked on high-quality economic development.
Last year, the per capita GDP of China exceeded $12,000, and the per capita disposable income of Chinese residents hit 35,000 yuan. The national per capita consumption expenditure increased 12.6 percent in real terms, and the country’s import of consumer goods went up by 9.9 percent.
International experts believe that the upgrading of China’s industry and consumption will create massive investment opportunities. According to a survey recently issued by the AHK Greater China, German enterprises in China are optimistic about the future growth of the Chinese market, and 71 percent of them are planning to increase their investment in China.
China has continuously broadened market access, shortening its national negative list and pilot free trade zone negative list for five consecutive years. It has also constantly improved investment facilitation, protection, and reporting systems, and enhanced intellectual property protection.
The country is committed to building a market-oriented and world-class business environment governed by a sound legal framework. As a result, foreign enterprises’ investment in China is well protected, which has further reinforced their confidence in investing and sharing opportunities in the Chinese market.
A World Bank Doing Business report said that China has moved up 60 places on the business environment list since 2012. International experts believe that more opportunities will be created in China as the country expands its encouraged industries catalog and guides more foreign capitals to flow into advanced manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, as well as digital economy and green development sectors.
China is determined and has taken firm steps to expand high-level opening up and share market opportunities with the rest of the world.
It has promoted comprehensive opening up in agriculture, manufacturing and service sectors, encouraged new businesses and development models such as cross-border e-commerce and overseas warehouses, and constantly made and implemented policies to align itself with high-standard trade rules and boost institutional opening up.
Besides, the country has also implemented the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement and been actively advancing the process of joining the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership.
Opening up is always a theme of China despite the declining world openness index and weakening global consensus on opening up.
The country has established important cooperation platforms for global trade and economy such as the China International Import Expo, the China International Fair for Trade in Services, the China Import and Export Fair and the China International Consumer Products Expo.
The Belt and Road Initiative has constantly expanded the circle of friends for participating countries, and China-Europe freight trains are running day and night across the Eurasian continent. China, amid continuous opening up, is creating abundant development opportunities.
China will keep expanding opening up and share more dividends of its high-quality economic development with the rest of the world, so as to dispel the dark clouds over the world economy and achieve robust, sustainable, balanced and inclusive growth for all.
