Investment-luring China Speeds up 'Going Global'

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, September 12, 2003

Investment-luring China Speeds up 'Going Global'

China will continue to implement a policy encouraging both inbound and outbound investment, Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi said Thursday.

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China will continue to implement a policy encouraging both inbound and outbound investment, Chinese Vice-Premier Wu Yi said Thursday.

At the Seventh China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT), which concluded Thursday, Wu said that China will pick up its pace in going global, take initiatives to participate in international economic competition and encourage domestic enterprises with competitive advantages to invest overseas.

At CIFIT, China's most important investment promotion event, which attracted over 10,000 overseas participants this year, nine out of 42 forums were on or related to China's outbound investment.

Analysts believed that China's great potential in outbound investment is now catching the eye of more countries and regions. Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and Sweden promoted their countries' investment environment and policies during CIFIT, and Caribbean nations and southeast Asian countries also showed their intention to attract Chinese investment.

As China is strengthening its guidance on outward investment, simplifying application procedures and improving its services on outward investment information, analysts said, more Chinese enterprises, either state-owned or private, will go global and compete in other countries as "foreign investors."

Sir Stephen Brown, Group Chief Executive of British Trade International, said at a forum at CIFIT that the idea that foreign direct investment is good and outward investment is bad "no longer holds" today.

"The high interdependence of states in the world economy today means that increasingly we seek to build mutually beneficial partnerships between companies and countries," Brown said.

Wu Xilin, an official in charge of international cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce, said that China's entry into the World Trade Organization boosted the country into a new stage of development in its opening-up drive.

As a member of the international community, Wu said, China will participate in international economic cooperation and competition with a more active stance and at a higher level.

So, while China is continuing its efforts to attract overseas investment, it is also quickening its move to go global, Wu said.

Wu said that Chinese enterprises are encouraged to make full use of both domestic and overseas markets and resources.

"We hope they can expand their influence in the international market and sharpen their competitive edge in international competition," said Wu.

According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, China had set up 7,178 non-finance related enterprises overseas in over 160 countries and regions by the end of June, involving a total investment of some 15 billion US dollars.

Standing prominently among the "going-global" enterprises are China National Petroleum Corporation, China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (SinoPec), China Worldbest Group Co. Ltd, Broad Air Conditioning, the Haier Group and the New Hope Group. These leaders in transnational operations have basically set up a global network in production and marketing.

However, said Khalil Hamdani, an investment official with the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, China's outgoing investment is still small.

To take more share of the international market, he said, Chinese enterprises still need to focus more on outbound investment and go out.

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