In the first half of this year, in the face of the weak recovery of the world economy and the shrinking external demand, China’s import and export of goods reached 20.1 trillion yuan, a record high in the same period of history; The quality of foreign capital utilization improved, especially the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech manufacturing increased by 28.8%. Foreign trade and foreign investment continue to improve quality steadily under heavy pressure.
In an interview, many experts pointed out that challenges and opportunities coexist in the current development of foreign trade and foreign capital, and we should continue to take effective measures to promote the continuous and steady improvement of foreign trade and foreign capital.
Foreign trade and foreign investment are more resilient.
In the first half of the year, China unswervingly promoted high-level opening to the outside world, promoted stable scale and excellent structure of foreign trade, and made greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital.
"Against the background of weak growth of global external demand and increasing uncertainty, the achievements of foreign trade in the first half of the year are hard-won, showing that foreign trade has strong resilience and vitality." Zhao Ping, dean and researcher of China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, said.
In the first half of the year, the overall scale of China’s foreign trade achieved a positive growth of 2.1%, and the total import and export value increased by more than 400 billion yuan year-on-year. Yang Changyong, a researcher at the Institute of Foreign Economic Research of China Macroeconomic Research Institute, said in an interview that in the first half of the year, most of the world’s major economies’ exports grew at a low speed or even negatively. In contrast, China’s foreign trade development performance in the same period was better than the average level of major economies.
In the first half of the year, the quality of China’s foreign trade development improved steadily. "While stabilizing exports to developed economies, exports to developing markets and emerging markets such as ASEAN have grown rapidly." Zhao Ping said that new high-tech products are becoming an important driving force for China’s export growth. In addition, from the perspective of regional layout, the pace of opening up and development in the central and western regions and the three northeastern provinces has accelerated.
Affected by multiple factors, global foreign direct investment is still facing downward pressure this year. Adding the high base factor in the same period in 2022, the actual amount of foreign capital used in China decreased by 2.7% in the first half of the year, but the overall scale remained stable.
"Short-term data fluctuation does not affect foreign investment to continue to be optimistic about China’s development prospects, and the overall trend of expanding investment in China has not changed." Zhu Bing, director of the Foreign Investment Management Department of the Ministry of Commerce, said.
In the first half of the year, 24,000 foreign-invested enterprises were newly established nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 35.7%. "The rapid growth in the number of newly established foreign-funded enterprises shows that China is still a very important investment destination for multinational companies. China’s super-large-scale market advantage is still an important factor in attracting transnational investment. " Wang Xiaohong, deputy director of scientific research and information department of China International Economic Exchange Center, said.
The investment of developed countries in China has kept growing, with the investment of France, Britain, Japan and Germany increasing by 173.3%, 135.3%, 53% and 14.2% respectively. "The investment of multinational companies in developed countries in China is still growing exponentially, which further improves the integration level of industrial chain and supply chain between China and developed countries." Wang Xiaohong said.
There are favorable conditions for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment
Experts said that despite the complicated and severe external environment, China still has favorable conditions for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment.
The data shows that the import and export of private enterprises in China in the first half of the year was 10.59 trillion yuan, up 8.9% year-on-year, accounting for 52.7% of the total import and export value. In the same period, foreign-invested enterprises imported and exported 6.16 trillion yuan, accounting for 30.7% of the total import and export value. "In recent years, private enterprises have surpassed foreign-funded enterprises to gradually become the main force for the steady growth of China’s foreign trade, but the import and export of foreign-funded enterprises still occupy a stable share. Therefore, stabilizing foreign trade must also stabilize foreign investment. In a certain sense, stabilizing foreign investment means stabilizing foreign trade. " Wang Xiaohong said.
In the first half of the year, China’s economy continued to recover, the overall recovery was good, high-quality development was solidly promoted, the overall social situation remained stable, and a series of policies and measures were implemented one after another, creating favorable conditions for stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment.
Since the beginning of this year, a number of executives from multinational companies have been visiting China continuously, making a comprehensive and in-depth inspection of China’s business environment and seeking new opportunities for investment cooperation. According to the Survey Report on the Business Environment of Foreign Capital in China in the Second Quarter of 2023 released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, nearly 70% of the foreign-funded enterprises surveyed are optimistic about the market prospects of China in the next five years, and over 90% of the foreign-funded enterprises surveyed believe that the attractiveness of the China market has increased or remained flat.
As the city with the largest concentration of regional headquarters and foreign R&D centers of multinational corporations in mainland China, there were 922 regional headquarters and 544 foreign R&D centers in Shanghai in the first half of this year. Since 2023, Jiangsu has taken practical measures to promote the stable stock and expansion of foreign investment, and has formulated the Regulations on Foreign Investment in Jiangsu Province to effectively safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign investment and continuously enhance its attractiveness to high-quality global resources.
"Promoting high-level opening to the outside world, steadily expanding the institutional opening of rules, regulations, management, standards and other international economic and trade rules will help build a more mature and stereotyped high-level socialist market economic system and further stimulate the vitality of various business entities." Wang Xiaohong said.
In terms of stabilizing foreign trade, the challenges and opportunities faced by exports this year coexist. Yang Changyong said that the growth rate of foreign trade has dropped significantly in the past two months, so we should be vigilant. He believes that emerging markets and developing countries, especially many "Belt and Road" countries, still maintain high vitality in economic growth and have a strong desire for open cooperation, which provides favorable international market conditions for foreign trade development.
Take solid measures to meet the challenge
In response to the complicated and severe external environment in the second half of the year, experts suggest that we should give full play to China’s super-large-scale market advantages to expand domestic demand, solve the practical difficulties faced by enterprises, and take solid measures to meet the challenge of stabilizing foreign trade and foreign investment in the second half of the year.
Zhao Ping said that to achieve the goal of stabilizing the scale and optimizing the structure of foreign trade, we should continue to make efforts to help enterprises reduce costs and increase efficiency. It is necessary to make good use of the institutional dividend in the new stage of RCEP’s full implementation and help enterprises to further explore the international market. At the same time, it is necessary to keep the RMB exchange rate basically stable at a balanced level of reasonable control.
Yang Changyong said that we should do everything possible to tap the market potential along the Belt and Road, develop more marketable products with high quality and good price, consolidate the recognition of Chinese products in developing countries’ markets, and enhance the brand reputation of China. At the same time, we attach great importance to the export markets of developed countries in the United States and Europe, and support enterprises to deeply cultivate the markets of developed countries.
In the second half of the year, global transnational investment is still facing greater downward pressure, which makes the external environment for attracting foreign investment in China more severe and complicated. At the same time, China’s economy has strong resilience, great potential and sufficient vitality, and its long-term positive fundamentals have not changed. "China’s comprehensive advantages in attracting foreign investment, consisting of a complete industrial system, complete infrastructure, rich human resources and a continuously optimized business environment, are also constantly strengthening." Zhu Bing said.
Experts suggest that we should continue to promote the reasonable reduction of the negative list of foreign investment access and further cancel or relax the restrictions on foreign investment access. We will deepen the construction of a comprehensive demonstration zone for the expansion and opening up of the national service industry, launch a new batch of innovative pilot measures, and steadily expand the institutional opening up of the service industry. Revise the Measures for the Administration of Foreign Investors’ Strategic Investment in Listed Companies to further relax the restrictions on foreign investors’ strategic investment in listed companies.
In addition, on the basis of continuing to implement the existing policy of stabilizing foreign investment, China will focus on the common demands of foreign-funded enterprises, such as fair competition, investment facilitation and factor guarantee, and promote the introduction of a new batch of policies and measures to optimize the foreign investment environment and attract foreign investment. By continuing to run the "Invest in China Year" series of activities, the service guarantee level of foreign investment will be continuously improved.
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