Nation moves to level playing field for foreign investors

Attention to be paid to better protect legitimate interests, rights to bring about high-quality opening-up

China will pay more attention to the protection of foreign investors' legitimate interests and rights while continuing to broaden market access for them, a senior expert told China Daily in an exclusive interview.

Zhang Wei, vice-president of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation under the Ministry of Commerce, pointed out that the report to the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China used "appropriate" to describe the future downsizing of the negative lists for foreign investment, while in the past, the country had actively expanded foreign investment access to the China market.

"That means simply expanding market access may not be what foreign investors hope for, nor the main goal of China's work on foreign investment," Zhang said.

"Instead, building a sound business climate to facilitate better development of foreign enterprises in China will become not only what foreign investors want, but also a key task of China's further opening-up in the foreign investment sector," she added.

According to the ministry, actual use of foreign capital in China reached more than 1 trillion yuan ($140.8 billion) in the first nine months, up 15.6 percent year-on-year.

That came amid some concerns that challenges and pressures from the pandemic, the sluggish global economy and the reconstruction in worldwide industrial and supply chains among others are weakening some foreign investors' confidence and expectations in China.

Analysts have said the uptick in growth will make China more attractive and strengthen China's attractiveness to foreign investment.

Zhang said China is expected to better align its development agenda with the interests and concerns of foreign investors to further attract foreign investment.

She expects sectors like high-tech and modern services will be key areas for China to step up efforts to attract more foreign investment.

Since industries including high-tech, modern services and environmental protection have been prioritized in China's development strategies, they will likely create more development opportunities for foreign investors and attract more attention.

Zhang also said China is expected to further stimulate foreign investment's potential in promoting its high-quality development. For instance, foreign investment can play a better role in China's technological advancement and green and low-carbon development.

The country should also guide foreign investment to align its strategies with China's pursuit of coordinated regional development, she added.

Moreover, as China will attract more high-quality global production factors to participate in its domestic circulation, it is also important for the country to encourage foreign enterprises to expand reinvestment, she said, adding this will help foreign enterprises better integrate into its economic development and therefore enjoy relevant dividends and realize better growth in China.

She said a key focus for China to advance foreign investment work in the future will be improving services for foreign investors.

The country has made substantial moves in promoting and protecting foreign investment, and it is important to maintain equal treatment for foreign and domestic investments, she said, adding in areas open to competition, the playing field should be leveled for domestic and foreign enterprises.

Zhang said opening-up amid the realization of Chinese modernization needs to focus on shaping new competitive advantages for the country to participate in global competition and cooperation, readjusting its position in the global division of labor to gain new development impetus through global cooperation, and well coordinating relations between the advancement of opening-up and development.

"As we have moved beyond the stage when openness in labor-intensive areas characterized China's opening-up, we should upgrade and improve China's competitive advantages," Zhang said.

"We need to forge more competitiveness in technology, capital and knowledge-intensive industries, whether in trade or investment," she said, adding that the country is also expected to empower traditional industries, trade and investment with digital technologies to further unleash the potential of the digital economy and therefore form new competitiveness in global economic cooperation.

Although China's advantages in labor costs is weakening, the country still has competitiveness regarding the combined cost of production factors. That, together with its complete industrial chains and improving support systems, all increasingly add to China's attractiveness to foreign investment, she said.

Zhang also said commercial interests remain the pivot of global companies' decision making although they now consider more about industrial and supply chain security and political factors as having an increasing impact on the global division of labor.