Business
Investment fair sees global investors brim with optimism about the Chinese market
By Ma Miaomiao  ·  2021-09-22  ·   Source: NO.38 SEPTEMBER 23, 2021
  
The 21st CIFIT opens in Xiamen, Fujian Province, on September 8 (WEI YAO)

Indian businessman Niren Anand's first startup in China, namely Xiamen Ever Trade Import and Export Co. Ltd. in the coastal province of Fujian, turns 11 this year. He also has a factory in another Fujian city of Jinjiang, designing and manufacturing products for sports brands such as Lotto and Fila.

Anand's company was among the 5,000 businesses from nearly 100 countries and regions flocking to the 21st China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in Xiamen, Fujian, in pursuit of new business opportunities.

The four-day event concluded on September 11 with agreements inked on 512 projects, worth 392 billion yuan ($60.7 billion). On the fair's sidelines, over 60 seminars, briefings and business conferences took place, focusing on investment opportunities from Belt and Road collaboration, digital and green economies as well as carbon neutrality.

Over the years, CIFIT has played a positive and fruitful role in promoting the two-way investment between China and foreign countries. Zhang Quanjun, President of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade Xiamen Committee, said.

The Chinese market

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a dramatic fall in global foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2020, dropping 35 percent to $1 trillion, according to the World Investment Report 2021 published by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). Nevertheless, FDI growth in China continued, increasing 6 percent to $149 billion last year.

Anand for one believes the near future will have in store greater opportunities for the Chinese market. "We are planning to expand our business in China by launching our own brand by the end of this year," he said.

"There are new challenges, but this doesn't mean that the confidence in China's economic growth will be affected as long as we find ways to get around or solve some of the issues," Jose Santiago L. Sta. Romana, Philippine Ambassador to China, told Beijing Review.

"Multinational companies at different stages of development can always find opportunities in China, which is perhaps an advantage that no other country can match," Zhou Bing, Global Vice President of U.S. computer maker Dell, said. Dell decided to land in Xiamen in 1998 during that year's CIFIT, marking the beginning of the U.S. enterprise's exploration of the Chinese market. Today, Dell's research and development institutions in China have contributed nearly one third of its global patents.

China was one of the first economies to achieve a great recovery from the COVID-19 slowdown, and this has been greatly felt by U.S. companies operating in the country, Matthew Margulies, Vice President of China Operations for the U.S.-China Business Council, told Beijing Review.

Despite trade tensions between the two major economies and a still intense COVID-19 pandemic, China-U.S. bilateral trade reached $580 billion in 2020 and now supports 2.6 million U.S. jobs.

Margulies said U.S. enterprises continue to display upbeat expectations of the Chinese market. "[They] are still optimistic about the opportunities that exist here."

Belt and Road cooperation

In his address to the opening ceremony of this CIFIT edition, Chinese Vice Premier Hu Chunhua called for sustained efforts to strengthen results-oriented cooperation with countries of the Belt and Road Initiative.

In the case of the Philippines, "China's further implementation of the Belt and Road Initiative means we construct our own infrastructure program and make sure the two align. It is a reassurance that we can further continue the cooperation," Sta. Romana said.

Serbia has benefited a lot from the initiative, Ivan Candias, Chargé d'Affaires of the Serbian Embassy in China, told Beijing Review, adding that Chinese enterprises have invested in the steel and chemical industries and established new infrastructure in his country, which has helped endorse Serbia's economic and social development.

According to the UNCTAD report, international investment flow is critical to sustainable development in poorer regions of the world, but greenfield investment in industrial areas and new infrastructure projects in developing countries has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic.

Against this backdrop, Chinese enterprises are employing the initiative to present and share opportunities with the world. China's investment in Belt and Road participants now exceeds $200 billion, Wang Shouwen, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy China International Trade Representative, said.

PSA International Pte. Ltd., a world-class port group headquartered in Singapore, was welcomed as the latest member of the Silk Road Maritime, an international shipping logistics service brand, during the 2021 CIFIT.

Jointly initiated by Xiamen Port Holding Group and leading shipping companies around the world, the consortium intends to boost trade ties among Belt and Road participants, witnessing swift progress in recent years.

At the fair, eight more routes were added, bringing the total number of named routes to 80, linking 99 ports in 27 countries. As of late August, the alliance had operated over 6,000 voyages transporting some 6 million 20-foot equivalent container units.

New openings

China aims to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality before 2060. Global investors at the fair mentioned that the low-carbon transformation has become a new driving force for China's inbound and outbound investment.

"China's carbon-neutral ambitions encouraged us to increase investment here," Feng Yan, Vice President of Air Products China, said. The U.S.-owned supplier of gases for industrial usage is investing in projects of liquid hydrogen which can be used, for instance, in hydrogen fuel cell automobiles, and hydrogen metallurgy, a technology that applies hydrogen instead of carbon as a reducing agent.

Last year, the company invested in a liquid hydrogen project in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province. "We've been expanding our investment in China, and we are planning to keep doing so in the next five years," Feng added. The company, also developing carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, has bigger plans to embrace the bright market prospects of China's technology.

Margulies reverberated with Feng, saying this is definitely an area in which many U.S. companies are looking to develop more and stronger cooperation with provinces and enterprises across China. "That's an area a lot of companies consider to possess high potential in China," he added.

The endeavor in turn drives the demand for new-energy vehicles. Consequently, many automobile multinationals have firmly set their sights on this booming sector. Volkswagen has constructed two production plants at two of the group's manufacturing bases in China, according to Zhi Yixiang, Director of Corporate and Joint-Venture Affairs at Volkswagen Group China.

Zhi explained that the company has set a goal of delivering over 1.5 million new-energy vehicles per year in China by 2025. "There is not one market in the world other than China that is big enough for so many new-energy vehicle producers to compete," Zhi said.

Many local players are leading in the electrification and digitization of the auto industry, which entails big opportunities for cooperation, he added. 

(Print Edition Title: Injecting Confidence)

(Reporting from Xiamen, Fujian Province)

Copyedited by Elsbeth van Paridon

Comments to mamm@bjreview.com

China
Opinion
World
Business
Lifestyle
Video
Multimedia
 
China Focus
Documents
Special Reports
 
About Us
Contact Us
Advertise with Us
Subscribe
Partners: China.org.cn   |   China Today   |   China Pictorial   |   People's Daily Online   |   Women of China   |   Xinhua News Agency   |   China Daily
CGTN   |   China Tibet Online   |   China Radio International   |   Global Times   |   Qiushi Journal
Copyright Beijing Review All rights reserved 京ICP备08005356号 京公网安备110102005860