China continues to become a global investment hotspot

In the first quarter of this year, 3M Company of the United States will establish a thermal runaway barrier conversion production line in Hefei, Anhui Province. Bosch Group announced that it will invest in the establishment of Bosch new energy vehicle core components and automatic driving R&D and manufacturing base in Suzhou. Schneider Electric's key power supply innovation laboratory officially launched its operation in Shanghai. The first newly established foreign-owned securities company, Standard Chartered Securities (China) Co., Ltd., was approved to be established, The pace of foreign investment in China has accelerated.
In an interview with the reporter of China Trade News, many experts said that China has become and will continue to become a global investment hotspot due to its huge economic scale, high-level opening up, developed infrastructure system, continuously optimized business environment, and perfect industrial chain supply chain.
In the first quarter of this year, 3M, headquartered in the United States, will establish a $2.5 million thermal runaway barrier (TRB) conversion production line in Hefei, Anhui Province. The products produced will be applied to the battery system of electric vehicles, which can effectively improve the thermal management performance of batteries. The relevant head of 3M Automotive and Aerospace Solutions, a subsidiary of 3M, said that the large-scale production in China would enable 3M to respond faster to the growing demand of the local electric vehicle market.
"China has the most complete manufacturing system with the most complete industrial categories and the most complete industrial system in the world, complete supporting facilities, strong policy support, and rapid development of high-tech industries, so the attraction of high-tech fields to international investment is huge." Wang Yiwei, member of the expert committee of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and director of the Institute of International Affairs of Renmin University of China, told reporters. According to the data of the Ministry of Commerce, the actual amount of foreign capital used nationwide in 2022 was 1232.68 billion yuan, up 6.3% year on year. The actual use of foreign capital in high-tech industries increased by 28.3%, accounting for 36.1% of the country's total, 7.1 percentage points higher than that in 2021, of which the manufacturing of electronic and communication equipment, transformation services of scientific and technological achievements and information services increased by 56.8%, 35% and 21.3% respectively.
The development of high-tech industries cannot be separated from sustained and intensive R&D investment. More and more high-tech foreign-funded enterprises set their R&D centers in China. A few days ago, Bosch Automotive Parts (Suzhou) Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Bosch Group, signed an investment agreement with the Suzhou Industrial Park Management Committee, and announced to invest in the establishment of Bosch new energy vehicle core components and automatic driving R&D and manufacturing base in Suzhou. According to the agreement, the first phase of the newly built R&D and manufacturing base is expected to be completed by the middle of 2024.
"As a multinational enterprise, we need to make full use of our local R&D and production capacity in China." Stefan Harton, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Bosch Group, said that Bosch will further enhance its global competitiveness through continuous development in China. It is reported that the R&D and manufacturing base, with a total capacity of about 300000 square meters, will mainly develop and manufacture electric drive products equipped with a new generation of silicon carbide power module units, intelligent decoupling brake system, Bosch China's advanced intelligent driving solutions and other core technologies of automatic driving.
In order to further strengthen the support for foreign R&D centers, the General Office of the State Council recently forwarded the "Measures on Further Encouraging Foreign Investment to Set up R&D Centers" (hereinafter referred to as "Measures") issued by the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Science and Technology. The Several Measures put forward 16 policy measures to support scientific and technological innovation, improve the convenience of research and development, encourage the introduction of overseas talents, and improve the level of intellectual property protection, which are conducive to creating a better development environment for foreign-funded research and development centers.
Zhu Yu, a researcher at the China Institute of New Urbanization at Tsinghua University, told reporters that China's R&D design and brand marketing capabilities are relatively weak, so it is very important to encourage foreign investment to set up R&D centers in China in the process of guiding foreign investment to participate in and share the dividends of the Chinese market, which is also in line with the general direction of China's industrial transformation and upgrading.
In addition to high-tech industries, China's increasingly open financial market has accelerated the layout of foreign capital. The CSRC recently approved the application for the establishment of Standard Chartered Securities, and the first newly established wholly foreign-owned securities company was approved for establishment. Before the establishment of Standard Chartered Securities, there were two foreign-owned securities companies that were changed from foreign-owned securities companies, namely Gaosheng Gaohua Securities and JPMorgan Chase Securities. In addition, in January this year, China's financial market ushered in two wholly foreign-owned public funds. On January 13, the CSRC officially approved the establishment of Schroder Fund. On January 19, Morgan Asset Management Holding Co., Ltd. received the approval of China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) for accepting the contribution of 250 million yuan (accounting for 100% of the registered capital) from Shanghai Investment Morgan Fund, which means that Morgan Asset Management will become a 100% wholly-owned shareholder of Shanghai Investment Morgan Fund.
Relevant experts told reporters that China's capital market has a strong attraction for international investors, which also stems from the continuous opening up of China's financial industry, the continuous promotion of the implementation of high-level institutional opening measures of the capital market by regulators, the continuous optimization of the market interconnection mechanism, the continuous improvement of the basic trading system, and the continuous expansion of domestic and foreign investment and financing channels. In the future, it is necessary to further expand the investment scope and fields of foreign investors in the Chinese market, simplify the procedures for foreign investors to enter the Chinese market, enrich the types of industries and assets that can be invested, and continuously improve the investment convenience.