WIDER OPENING-UP

As China continues to open its doors wider, foreign companies are seeing more business opportunities.

Foreign companies in China are enjoying broader prospects as the Chinese government continues to promote high-level opening-up and innovation-driven development while improving the business environment, said Zhang Heping, Head of Greater China, Sanofi Vaccines, a French healthcare company.

China has vowed to expand high-quality and institutional opening-up, grant foreign-funded enterprises national treatment, attract more investment from multinational companies, and facilitate the early implementation of major foreign-invested projects in 2022, according to the tone-setting annual Central Economic Work Conference held last December.

To further open up the economy, a shortened negative list for foreign investment came into force on Jan. 1 this year, with off-limit items cut to 31 from 33 a year ago. Notably, the foreign capital cap in the auto industry was removed, and manufacturing restrictions in pilot free-trade zones were also reduced to zero.

As a window to observe a country's opening-up level and reflect its economic vitality, foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 11.6 percent year on year to 102.28 billion yuan in January, official data showed. The growth was the fastest and the first double-digit increase for the same period since 2016.

Based on China's sound economic fundamentals and competitive advantages in market size, infrastructure, and business environment, Kang Yong, chief economist of KPMG China, estimated that foreign investment in China will remain at a high level in 2022.