China still has favorable conditions to attract foreign investment: official

BEIJING, Jan. 8 (Xinhua) -- China still boasts favorable conditions to attract foreign investment, an official with the country's Ministry of Commerce told the China Economic Roundtable hosted by Xinhua News Agency.

Noting that China was estimated to contribute around one-third of the global growth and remain the biggest engine of global economic development in 2023, Zhu stated that the fundamentals of China's sound economic development remained constant in the long run.

Zhu added that multinationals value the Chinese market's massive scale, innovative competitiveness, and attractiveness of global innovation factor resources.

From January to November 2023, China's high-tech industries attracted investment of 386.65 billion yuan (about 54.45 billion U.S. dollars), accounting for 37.2 percent of total foreign direct investment volume. During the period, the number of new foreign-invested firms in China increased by 36.2 percent year-on-year.

The data reflects the effectiveness of a series of policies issued by the government, such as the Catalog of Encouraged Industries for Foreign Investment, support on the development of foreign-funded research and development centers, and expansion of foreign investment in the manufacturing sector.

At the annual Central Economic Work Conference held last month, the country also pledged to expand high-level opening up and reinforce the stable performance in foreign trade and foreign investment.

Looking ahead, Zhu noted that more efforts will be made to ease market access. For example, the ministry will work hard to eliminate all restrictions for foreign investors entering the manufacturing industry, intensify stress tests on opening up in pilot free trade zones, and deepen opening up in the service sector.

Many multinationals, according to Zhu, remain bullish on the Chinese market and committed to investing in China because "investing in China means investing in the future."

China Economic Roundtable is an all-media talk platform launched by Xinhua News Agency, with the third episode featuring the foreign trade and investment.