Foreign enterprises pick up the pace to invest in China’s new infrastructure

Many foreign enterprises have been speeding up their investment and business layout in China’s infrastructure for its numerous opportunities in coming years.

As of this year, a number of new infrastructure projects co-funded through foreign investments have been launched across the country.

On July 2, Siemens Industry Software (Shanghai) Co Ltd, a branch of German technology giant Siemens, inked an agreement with the government of Urumqi in Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region to build a China-Europe digitalized industrial new infrastructure innovation base in the city’s Ganquanpu Economic and Technological Development Zone.

The German company aims to build the base into a platform of technological innovation, intelligent manufacturing services, and talent cultivation in areas such as intelligent manufacturing, new energy, and industrial internet.

Siemens also plans to build a digitalized factory and exhibition center in Harbin, Northeast China’s Heilongjiang province, and an Internet of Things platform for the catering industry through cooperation with Qianxi Robotic Catering Group under the country’s leading property developer Country Garden.

“Investment in new infrastructure will bring a new round of market opportunities for related companies,” said Lothar Herrmann, CEO of Siemens Greater China, adding that the company is working with hundreds of Chinese companies to implement digital transformation and upgrading.

According to him, Siemens hopes to continue supporting China’s innovation and development in a sustainable manner and looks forward to more relevant policies for new infrastructure. “We will continue to take root in China and seek common development,” Herrmann noted.

On June 30, Europe’s largest software company, SAP, signed a project deal with Laiwu High-Tech Industrial Development Zone in East China’s Shandong province. The project, with an investment of 200 million yuan (over $29 million), will focus on the digital industry.

SAP will actively participate in China’s new infrastructure construction, support customers in accelerating digital transformation with its products, technologies, and services, and help governments and enterprises build new infrastructure, said Li Qiang, SAP global executive vice president.

In mid-May, US industrial conglomerate Honeywell opened its emerging market headquarters and innovation center in Wuhan, Central China’s Hubei province.

The company hopes to take the opportunity to better meet the needs of Chinese industries and consumers, while actively engaging in the country’s new infrastructure with new technologies, products, and models, said Zhang Yufeng, president of Honeywell China.

Other multinational companies such as Dell, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, and Schneider Electric have also announced their projects or plans in the new infrastructure sector.