China provides new opportunities for world with new development

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By Luo Shanshan (People's Daily) 14:46, June 14, 2024

Photo shows a workshop of the BMW production base in Shenyang, capital of northeast China's Liaoning province. (Photo from the WeChat public account of the publicity department of Shenyang)

At GE Healthcare's Beijing Imaging Equipment Manufacturing Base in Beijing Economic-Technological Development Area, five batches of raw materials for producing a new type of diagnostic equipment have just arrived and been put into use.

"These raw materials are essential components for our new equipment," said an employee from Beijing GE Hualun Medical Equipment Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of General Electric Company (GE).

"They hit the production line immediately after being cleared from customs, which increased the efficiency of our supply chain," the employee added.

According to him, the company has been able to implement its global strategy at a faster pace thanks to the increasingly favorable business environment in China.

He noted that over the past 6 years, the company has outperformed its total production from the last 20 years, with two-thirds of the CT scanners sold globally coming from the company's Beijing facility.

Photo shows a new factory of Suzhou Hybiome Biomedical Engineering Co. Ltd. (Hybiome), invested and controlled by French multinational vitro diagnostic company bioMérieux, in Suzhou New District, east China's Jiangsu province. (Photo from the WeChat public account of the publicity department of Suzhou New District)

In Suzhou New District, east China's Jiangsu province, a new factory of Suzhou Hybiome Biomedical Engineering Co. Ltd. (Hybiome), invested and controlled by French multinational vitro diagnostic company bioMérieux, has just been completed.

To build Hybiome into a prominent player in vitro diagnostics, the factory is planned to produce 1,000 fully automated chemiluminescence immunoassay systems per year, with an annual output value of 1 billion yuan ($137.86 million).

Over the past more than 40 years of reform and opening up, China has emerged as the world's second-largest economy, remained the world's top manufacturing hub for 14 consecutive years and the top trading nation for 7 straight years. The country undoubtedly plays an indispensable role in global industrial and supply chains.

This year, foreign companies continue to enjoy broader prospects in China. According to China's Ministry of Commerce, the number of newly established foreign-invested firms in China hit 12,000 in the first quarter (Q1) of 2024, up 20.7 percent year on year. In the same period, the actual foreign direct investment (FDI) in China stood at 301.67 billion yuan.

In terms of the structure of FDI, the country's high-tech manufacturing sector attracted 12.5 percent of the FDI inflow in the first quarter, up 2.2 percentage points compared to that in the same period last year.

Behind the decisions of multinationals to intensify their presence in China is their confidence in the country's ability to sustain sound economic growth.

People visit Asia's largest Apple store in Shanghai. (Photo from Yan Daming/People's Daily Online)

For instance, Standard Chartered Securities (China) Limited, a wholly foreign-owned securities company affiliated with Standard Chartered, has commenced securities business in Beijing. The largest Apple store in Asia has officially opened in Shanghai. The China-Saudi Arabia ethylene project has entered the full construction stage in Zhangzhou, east China's Fujian province, with a total investment of 44.8 billion yuan.

China boasts a complete industrial system, a super-large market, and a stable social environment. The Chinese economy has strong resilience, tremendous potential and great vitality, and the fundamentals sustaining its long-term growth remain unchanged. It has become the favored investment destination for many foreign businesses.

The 2024 Kearney Foreign Direct Investment Confidence Index report released in April by Kearney, a global management consulting firm, upgraded China's ranking from seventh to third.

Besides, for the second time in the 26-year history of the FDI Confidence Index, Kearney includes an exclusive emerging market ranking to give business leaders insights into which emerging markets are most appealing to investors now and over the next three years. China ranks first on the 25-market list.

As China advances a broader agenda of opening up across more areas and in greater depth, and works to expand institutional opening up with regard to market access and the service sector, a more transparent and predictable business environment is being created for foreign companies to develop in the country.