Jan-Feb data reveal foreign investment up 6% y-o-y, with high-tech shining
Global companies remain steadfast in their view that increasing investment in China is a smart strategy as its market's appealing consumption power, ongoing industrial upgrade and higher-level opening-up are big confidence boosters, said market watchers and business executives on Friday.
Data released by the Ministry of Commerce showed that foreign direct investment or FDI on the Chinese mainland, in terms of actual use, rose 6 percent year-on-year to 268.44 billion yuan ($39.05 billion) in the first two months of this year.
At the same time, high-tech industries saw a notable FDI increase of 32 percent from the same period last year. Specifically, FDI in high-tech manufacturing soared nearly 69 percent year-on-year, while that in the high-tech services sector surged more than 23 percent on a yearly basis, the ministry said in an online statement on Friday.
To ease the pressure caused by factors ranging from waning global goods demand to geoeconomic shocks, China has accelerated the pace of further releasing its market potential. Multinational corporations have been actively tapping the market trends and speeding up their investment layout, especially in areas like high-end consumption, manufacturing, healthcare and green energy development, said Wang Huiyao, president of the Beijing-based think tank Center for China and Globalization.
"We are optimistic about the Chinese economy's prospects for this year. We expect that the impact of COVID-19 will be behind us at some point during the first quarter of this year, allowing for a rebound in the second quarter," said Jens Eskelund, vice-president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China.
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