1. The current situation and characteristics of China’s utilization of foreign investment
Absorbing foreign direct investment is an important part of China’s opening up and accelerating the construction of a market economy. It is also China’s initiative to comply with the trend of economic globalization and actively An important measure to participate in the international division of labor. Over the past 26 years, with the continuous deepening of reform and opening up, China's investment environment and market operating environment have been increasingly improved, attracting more and more foreign investors to invest in China, making China one of the countries that absorbs the most foreign direct investment in the world.
As of the end of July 2005, investors from 192 countries and regions had established more than 530,000 foreign-invested enterprises in China, covering almost all industries in the primary, secondary and tertiary industries, with actual investment of foreign capital The amount amounts to US$600 billion. Nearly 450 of the world's 500 largest multinational companies have invested in China, more than 30 of which have established regional headquarters, and more than 600 foreign-invested R&D institutions have been established.
Among the 530,000 foreign-invested enterprises that have been approved in total, more than 280,000 are still registered and operating, and most of them are in good operating condition and profitable.
Specifically, China’s absorption of foreign direct investment has the following characteristics:
First, manufacturing is the main investment field. As of 2004, the number of enterprises and contract value accounted for 72.57% and 64.76% of the cumulative number of enterprises and contract value respectively. The real estate industry is the second largest field of foreign investment, with the number of enterprises and contract value accounting for 83.9% and 17.73% respectively; wholesale and retail industries , accounting for 4.96% and 2.86%; leasing and commercial services, accounting for 3.56% and 3.37%.
If divided into primary, secondary and tertiary industries, foreign-invested enterprises accounted for 2.84%, 75.0% and 22.16% of the total number of foreign-invested enterprises respectively, and the amount of contracted foreign capital accounted for 1.94%, 68.27% and 29.79%.
Second, the regional distribution of foreign investment is mainly concentrated in the eastern region. The eastern region accounts for 86.25% of the country's total actual utilized foreign direct investment, while the central and western regions account for 9.16% and 4.59% respectively. This is closely related to transportation convenience and infrastructure construction.
The third is mutual benefit and win-win. This is mainly reflected in the fact that China has become an important source of profits for multinational companies. According to surveys, currently 2/3 of foreign-invested enterprises in China have achieved profits, and about 2/5 of multinational companies’ business profits in China are higher than the average profit rate of their global businesses. From 1990 to 2004, foreign investors remitted The profit alone is more than 250 billion US dollars. According to a recent survey of 450 U.S. companies that are members of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, 68% of U.S. companies in China achieved profits or substantial profits in 2004, and 86% said their revenue was higher than the previous year. Foreign-invested enterprises have become an important part of China's economy. According to statistics, the industrial added value achieved by foreign-invested enterprises in 2004 reached 1.52405 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.8%, which was 2.1 percentage points higher than the national industrial added value increase in the same period, accounting for 27.8% of the national industrial added value; the actual amount of foreign capital utilized accounted for 10% of the entire society. The proportion of fixed asset investment has been above 10% in the ten years from 1993 to 2002, and has been around 8% in the past two years; imports accounted for 57.8% of the country's total imports, and exports accounted for 57.1% of the country's total exports; paid The tax revenue is 535.5 billion yuan, accounting for 20.8% of the country's total tax revenue; foreign-invested enterprises directly employ nearly 30 million people, accounting for about 10% of the urban employed population.
From these two sets of data alone, it can be clearly seen that China's introduction of foreign investment is mutually beneficial and win-win. It not only promotes China's economic development, but also enables foreign investors to gain huge profits from their investments in China. Return. At the same time, this also explains why China has become a production and sales platform for many foreign-invested enterprises, and has attracted more and more multinational companies to make China the focus of their global investment strategies.
2. The basic trend of China’s utilization of foreign direct investment in the new era
1. The environment and potential of China’s utilization of foreign investment in the new era
In the so-called new era, I think it The important signs mainly include the following aspects:
First, in 2006, China will begin to implement the 11th Five-Year Plan, and by 2010, its per capita GDP will be higher than that in 2000 (7,081 yuan/person). With the goal of doubling the national economic development to a new level, China will play a more important role in world economic growth. This period plays a historical role in the process of building a moderately prosperous society in an all-round way.
Second, after joining the World Trade Organization and entering the transitional period, China will further deepen reform and opening up, its open economy will reach a new level, and its integration with the world economy will become closer.
Third, the socialist market economic system will be further improved and market rules and disciplines will become more standardized, transparent and predictable. Chinese and foreign enterprises will achieve new development in a good investment and operating environment.
Fourth, the economic structure, industrial structure and product structure are in a new stage of further adjustment, which includes changing the economic growth mode and the foreign trade growth mode, which provides a basis for the adjustment and transfer of the world's industrial structure, especially the high-tech industry. Continue to move to the Chinese market, where profit prospects continue to be promising, providing new opportunities and huge development space.
In short, the next few years will be a new period for China's economic development, and it will also be a period of opportunity for foreign investors to make great achievements in this investment hotspot. It is hoped that far-sighted entrepreneurs and strategic investors will seize the opportunity to actively participate and continue to participate in China's economic construction and cooperation with sustained, rapid and stable growth. There is a popular saying in the shopping mall that "everyone makes money when they have money." This is also a basic principle followed by China in utilizing foreign investment.
We say that the prospects for foreign investment in China are promising and the potential is huge, based on the following reasons:
First, the Chinese market is huge and there is broad space for future development
In 2004, China's retail sales of consumer goods and means of production were approximately US$2 trillion, while China imported US$600 billion of foreign goods. In the first half of this year, China's economy grew by 9.5%, consumer demand is growing rapidly, and the production and consumption of many products (such as mobile phones, televisions, steel, cement, etc.) are among the best in the world. At present, China's domestic residents' savings have exceeded US$15 trillion; the country's middle-income population has increased by more than 20 million every year; the per capita GDP in the eastern coastal areas has exceeded US$2,000. Housing, cars, education, tourism, etc. have begun to become new consumption hot spots. By 2020, total market demand in China will be four times that of 2000. Such market size and development potential cannot help but make multinational companies excited.
In fact, when foreign-invested enterprises settle in China, on the one hand they take advantage of China's low-cost advantage, and on the other hand, more importantly, they aim at China's large market. Last year, foreign-invested enterprises realized products worth more than 400 billion US dollars in the Chinese market, while products worth more than 330 billion US dollars were realized in the international market. This is a good example.
Second, labor resources are abundant and low cost will remain China’s competitive advantage in the long term.
China has a population of 1.3 billion and the supply of labor resources is sufficient, especially the high level of talent. The quality and low cost are unmatched by other countries. In addition to labor-intensive industries, the talent cost advantage of the knowledge- and technology-intensive software industry is also very obvious. For example, the cost of using software talents in China is only 1/9 of the equivalent talent in the United States and 1/2 of that in India. Therefore, China has the advantage of attracting more multinational companies to invest in China. In the next 10 years, at least tens of millions of college graduates will join the white-collar workforce in China. This is a huge reservoir to ensure the supply of talent, and it is also a regulator to maintain a competitive advantage in the cost of high-quality talent.
Third, the increasingly perfect infrastructure has created a good hard investment environment
At present, the total mileage of China’s highways has reached 30,000 kilometers; the total operating mileage of railways is 72,000 kilometers , ranking third in the world; its port throughput is 4.1 billion tons, ranking first in the world; the total number of telephone users has exceeded 650 million, ranking first in the world; the number of Internet users has exceeded 94 million, ranking second in the world.
In the next few years, China's transportation and communications infrastructure will be further developed and improved. Not only do Chinese and foreign companies have a lot of cooperation opportunities and potential in this field, but the increasingly improved infrastructure also provides convenient conditions for investors.
Fourth, the legal system has been continuously improved to provide investors with a stable and predictable soft investment environment
In the three years since joining the WTO, nearly 30 departments of the State Council have, in accordance with WTO regulations, In line with the rules and the needs of China's reform and opening up, nearly 3,000 laws, regulations and departmental rules have been cleaned up and revised, of which more than 800 have been abolished, involving trade, investment, intellectual property and other aspects. A complete, open and transparent foreign investment law has been established The system provides investors with a stable and predictable soft investment environment.
Intellectual property protection has always been a concern for people, especially multinational companies that hold 80%-90% of the world's patented technologies. To be precise, the Chinese government attaches great importance to the protection of intellectual property rights. The leader of the leading group for intellectual property protection is Wu Yi, Vice Premier of the State Council. From national leaders to various government departments, they are strengthening the protection of intellectual property rights and increasing criminal penalties for infringements. For example, in 2004, nearly 2,000 offenders were held criminally responsible. In the future, China will continue to further strengthen the protection of intellectual property rights from the aspects of legal system construction and publicity and education, and will make unremitting efforts to actively prevent and severely crack down on infringement crimes. This is not only a need to protect the interests of foreign intellectual property owners, but also a need for China's economic development and its own interests. According to a business environment survey, 93% of the companies surveyed believe that China's business environment has improved, and 92% of companies are "optimistic" about their business prospects in China in the next five years.
2. The future direction of China’s utilization of foreign capital
“Continue to actively and effectively utilize foreign capital”, as an important part of “implementing a mutually beneficial and win-win opening-up strategy”, has been written into "Recommendations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the Eleventh Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development." This is an important message sent by the Chinese government, indicating that China will continue to maintain the stability and continuity of its foreign investment policy, welcome foreign investors to invest in China, and at the same time improve the quality of foreign investment utilization, strengthen the industrial and regional investment guidance of foreign investment, and promote domestic Industrial optimization and upgrading. Foreign investors should grasp China's basic orientation in utilizing foreign capital, identify their own positioning and entry points, and actively seek investment cooperation opportunities. In this regard, the following aspects should attract special attention.
First, the service industry is the focus of the new round of opening up to the outside world
At present, the development level of China’s service industry is still relatively low, accounting for only 30% of GDP. Therefore, the Fifth Plenary Session of the Communique It is clearly proposed to "accelerate the development of the service industry" and "orderly undertake the transfer of international modern service industries." According to my country's "WTO accession" commitment, foreign capital will be allowed to hold controlling shares in wholesale and retail enterprises in 2005, foreign banks will be allowed to provide RMB services to local enterprises, and foreign investors will be allowed to establish wholly-owned construction companies; by the end of 2005, foreign investors will be allowed to establish wholly-owned express delivery, road freight and freight forwarding Enterprises; by the end of 2006, foreign banks will be allowed to provide comprehensive banking services and wholly-owned railway freight enterprises will be allowed to be established. It is believed that as China's service sector further opens up to the outside world, China will be the largest and fastest growing market for service trade in the world in the future, and foreign businessmen will have many cooperation opportunities in this field.
Second, the high-tech field is the focus of promoting foreign investment
High-tech is the key to improving the industrial structure and competitiveness, so China welcomes investment projects with advanced technology, especially Encouraging foreign-invested enterprises to establish R&D centers is also a requirement to improve the quality of utilizing foreign capital. Currently, China is formulating a series of policies to encourage foreign-invested enterprises to establish R&D centers. However, investment projects with "high energy consumption, high pollution, and low efficiency" will be restricted or prohibited. At present, export tax rebates for some high-energy-consuming and high-pollution processing trade have been cancelled.
Third, the central, western and northeastern regions of my country will become hot spots for a new round of investment
First, these regions are vast in territory, rich in resources, have improved infrastructure, and have scientific and technological education. It has considerable strength and great potential for economic development; secondly, my country's strategies of "Rise of Central China", "Development of the West" and "Revitalization of Northeastern Old Industrial Bases" are being vigorously promoted, and the country has issued and will continue to issue a series of measures to support them. Policies and measures to accelerate development include policies and measures to encourage the participation of foreign-invested enterprises, and relevant government departments (including the Ministry of Commerce) to provide necessary assistance for foreign-invested enterprises to develop in these areas.
Fourth, the pace of state-owned enterprise reform is accelerating, and there are rare opportunities for foreign investment to participate
During the "Eleventh Five-Year Plan" period, China will accelerate the joint-stock reform of large state-owned enterprises, deepen the reform of monopolistic industries, and relax the market Access, diversify investment entities and property rights, encourage and support non-public ownership economies to participate in the reform of state-owned enterprises, and enter financial services, public utilities, infrastructure and other fields. This provides foreign investors with rare investment opportunities. I hope that powerful multinational companies will not miss the opportunity and win the most in China's economic development