Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China declined by 2.7% year-on-year in the first half of 2023 to CNY703.7 billion. Vice Minister of Commerce Guo Tingting also announced that 24,000 foreign invested firms were established in the January to June period, an increase of 35.7%. “It is not easy to achieve the results as major FDI source countries are facing different economic pressures,” Li Yong, Deputy Chair of the Expert Committee of the China Association of International Trade, told the Global Times. Capital investment in China from developed countries continued to grow, with investment from France surging 173.3% and that from the UK growing 135.3%. Japan's investment in China grew 53% and that from Germany was up 14.2%, according to Vice Minister Guo.
In 2022, against the backdrop of a 12% decline in global cross-border investment, China's FDI rose 6.3%, with the actual use of FDI reaching CNY1.2 trillion, an increase of 8%, Zhu Bing, a MOFCOM official, said. Executives of multinational corporations have continued to visit China to seek new opportunities for investment and cooperation. They said that the Chinese market contains massive development opportunities, which are not “optional” but “mandatory,” and they will continue to increase their investment in China, according to Zhu. “In the second half of the year, a number of executives of multinational companies plan to visit China, and we will provide maximum convenience for them to come to China to inspect the investment environment, buttress their development strategies and discuss cooperation projects. We welcome multinational companies to continue to invest in China and share the dividends of China's huge market and open development,” Zhu said.
The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) said that it will formulate policies to attract more foreign investment, expand market access and comprehensively optimize the business environment. It will strengthen communications with foreign enterprises and foreign Chambers of Commerce, coordinating and addressing in a timely manner the problems and requirements of all foreign enterprises, the Global Times reports.
