To attract and utilize foreign capital more vigorously is one of the key tasks of China's economic work in recent years. The Central Economic Work Conference proposed that we should continue to build a market-oriented, legalized and internationalized first-class business environment and create a brand of "investment in China". At present, the complexity, severity and uncertainty of the external environment are rising, and China faces certain challenges in attracting foreign capital. However, with a series of policy effects of stabilizing the economy, promoting opening up, and attracting foreign capital continuing to appear, foreign-funded enterprises continue to be optimistic about China's market, and there is a solid foundation and broad space for attracting and utilizing foreign capital. In the first quarter of this year, the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises in China reached 12000, with a year-on-year growth of 20.7%, continuing the trend of rapid growth of newly established enterprises since last year. To enhance the attractiveness of the "investment in China" brand, we must constantly improve the level of foreign capital utilization, expand and stabilize the stock with a high level of openness, strengthen the support of industries, factors, markets and systems, and provide a stable, transparent and predictable investment environment for Chinese and foreign investors.
China will accelerate the cultivation and development of new quality productive forces, solidly promote high-quality development, and provide better protection for foreign-funded enterprises to invest in China in terms of promoting industrial quality and efficiency, promoting efficient and smooth flow of factors, giving full play to the advantages of the super large market, and improving the system and mechanism.
Strengthen new industrial support. The development of new quality productivity not only brings "new" power to China's economy, but also broadens new space for win-win cooperation for foreign-funded enterprises. As the traditional low-cost competitive advantage gradually weakens, foreign-funded enterprises need to actively adapt to the upgrading trend of China's industrial structure, and maintain their competitiveness by improving product added value through innovation. To develop new quality productivity, it is necessary to promote the high-end, intelligent and green development of industries with scientific and technological innovation. By transforming and upgrading traditional industries, accelerating the development of emerging industries, and looking forward to the layout of future industries, we should vigorously promote the construction of digital infrastructure in big data, cloud computing, artificial intelligence and other fields, and constantly open up new fields and new tracks. New technologies, new formats and new models are emerging, which means more development opportunities for foreign-funded enterprises. We should increase efforts to attract foreign investment in key areas, guide foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing and producer services, and let more foreign-funded enterprises choose China and take root in China.
Cultivate new advantages of elements. With the change of China's economic development stage, the traditional way of attracting investment with low cost as the core advantage is undergoing profound changes. Cultivating and utilizing advanced productivity and new production factors is an inevitable choice to attract foreign investment. On the one hand, vigorously promote scientific and technological innovation, stimulate the vitality of innovation factors such as technology, information, data, talents, and capital, and improve the contribution of various production factors to industrial innovation and development, which is conducive to consolidating the advantageous foundation of attracting foreign capital, and providing strong support for high-quality development of multinational enterprises in China and optimizing the structure of China's utilization of foreign capital. On the other hand, by connecting domestic and international double circulation, we can make all kinds of high-quality factor resources flow efficiently and smoothly, and cultivate new advantages of "investing in China".
Tap new market potential. At present, the industrial layout and market strategic positioning of foreign-funded enterprises in China focus more on business in the Chinese market. According to statistical data analysis, more than 90% of foreign-funded enterprises in China mainly face the Chinese market. With the acceleration of the process of building a unified national market, the disposable income of urban and rural residents in China continues to increase, and the consumption structure continues to upgrade. The consumption of new energy vehicles, smart homes, entertainment tourism, sports events, etc. has become a new economic growth point, and new consumption formats and models such as digital consumption, green consumption, and health consumption are emerging, The super large market will bring more consumption scenarios, lower investment costs and higher investment returns. The market scale effect and agglomeration effect will further emerge, and foreign-funded enterprises will benefit more from the new market potential of the "investment in China" brand.
Release new system dividends. The key to building the brand of "investment in China" and enhancing the attractiveness of new industry support, new elements, new advantages and new market potential is to establish a fair and predictable market rule system, and release the investment vitality with a fair competition, dynamic investment environment and stable expectations. In 2023, the State Council issued the Opinions on Further Optimizing the Foreign Investment Environment and Increasing the Attraction of Foreign Investment, focusing on the concerns of foreign-funded enterprises, and introduced 24 specific measures, which greatly encouraged the confidence of foreign investment in China. By steadily promoting institutional openness, improving its own rules and institutional system, and docking with international high standard economic and trade rules, it is conducive to gathering high-quality resources around the world and providing policy support for promoting investment facilitation and liberalization.
At the same time, to enhance the attractiveness of the "investment in China" brand, we need to strengthen the supply of factors, better connect with the domestic demand market and fully release the system dividend, and increase efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital. First, optimize the investment structure. Give full play to the spillover effect of foreign investment technology, actively guide foreign investment to increase investment in modern service industries such as health care, research and development design, financial services, logistics and supply chain management, information and communication, and encourage foreign investment to flow into advanced manufacturing, strategic emerging industries, digital economy, low-carbon environmental protection and other fields. Second, unblock the flow of innovation elements. Promote innovative cooperation between domestic and foreign enterprises. Support foreign technology enterprises and domestic scientific research institutions to jointly carry out scientific and technological research, strengthen personnel exchange and cooperation, encourage foreign investors to set up R&D centers and regional R&D headquarters in China, vigorously promote data development, opening up, circulation and use, and provide convenience for foreign talents to work, stay, and permanently reside in China. Actively participate in the formulation of international digital trade rules, and enhance China's voice in the formulation of international rules. Third, guide the flow of investment. Encourage foreign investment to increase innovation investment in key digital technology fields such as artificial intelligence, quantum information and industrial Internet, and support foreign-invested enterprises to participate in green low-carbon technology research and development, promotion and application. Fourth, speed up the improvement of the system and mechanism. Adhere to the principle of fair competition, continue to optimize market access, ensure the equal participation of foreign-funded enterprises in government procurement and standard formulation according to law, and maintain the stability and predictability of policy initiatives. Connect the negative list of foreign capital access with the negative list of market access, implement the national unified negative list system of market access, and regularly assess, check, and clear all kinds of hidden barriers.
(Source: Economic Daily Author: Ji Jianjun, Researcher of the Institute of Foreign Economics, China Academy of Macroeconomic Research)
