BEIJING (XINHUA) – Global firms are endeavouring to take the pulse of the recovering Chinese market, with some making long-awaited business trips and others staying on top of the latest policy moves.
For chairman Oliver Blume of the Board of Management of Volkswagen AG, his recent business trip to China proved a definite source of optimism.
“China is the most important market for us, and we will continue to expand our product lineup in the country,” Blume said in an interview with Xinhua.
Right after the Spring Festival holiday, Blume used a full week to visit the cities of Beijing, Changchun, Shanghai and Hefei, exchanging ideas with his Chinese colleagues, business partners and representatives from local governments.
Such face-to-face talks and intensive onsite visits have led to a deeper understanding of the Chinese market. “We predict that the Chinese automobile market will sustain its recovering momentum in 2023, and the market prospect of new energy vehicles is particularly bright,” said Blume. Bullish on China’s economy, he said Volkswagen would build new technology partnerships in the Chinese market.
Volkswagen AG is not the only global heavyweight seeking to accurately understand the Chinese economy to enable it to grasp market opportunities.
After China optimised its COVID-19 response, dozens of multinationals have reached out to the Ministry of Commerce for assistance in arranging their business visits in China, spokesperson Shu Jueting of the ministry said earlier at a press conference.
To better meet the needs of multinationals, Shu said the ministry would strengthen regular exchanges with foreign-invested companies and overseas business associations and fully implement the national treatment of foreign-funded firms.
On Wednesday at a news briefing dedicated to foreign businesses in China, Vice Minister of Commerce Sheng Qiuping reaffirmed China’s commitment to continuously advance opening-up.
Sheng introduced in detail the positive signals released by this year’s government work report, as well as the country’s favourable conditions for foreign firms to expand their investment, including a growing market scale, extended incentives from opening-up policies and new growth momentums that are emerging.
Executive vice president Leon Wang of pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, showed a keen interest in China’s policy environment and paid particular attention to the government work report.
“China has renewed its pledge to intensify efforts to attract and utilise foreign investment in this year’s government work report. We think the country’s further opening-up and a better business environment for overseas companies can be expected,” said Wang. “As one of the world’s biggest medical markets, China has become AstraZeneca’s most important growth engine,” he said.
In 2023, AstraZeneca will speed up research and development in China, and rely on its regional headquarters in Beijing, Guangzhou, Wuxi, Hangzhou, Chengdu and Qingdao to promote whole industry integration. The company is also looking forward to the Boao Forum for Asia and China Development Forum in late March, and will hold offline activities themed as “AstraZeneca R&D China Science Day” in Shanghai.
A recent survey conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China also pointed to growing optimism, as over 90 per cent of the surveyed companies said they considered China to be one of their most important investment destinations, with 75 per cent of the respondents planning to reinvest in China in 2023.
Official data from the Ministry of Commerce shed light on the investment dynamics. In the first two months of 2023, foreign direct investment in the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 6.1 per cent year on year to CNY268.44 billion (or USD39.71 billion).
