According to the survey of CCPIT, 86% of the enterprises surveyed are satisfied with China’s policy of stabilizing foreign investment.
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According to the survey data recently released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, 86% of the enterprises surveyed are satisfied with the policy of stabilizing foreign investment. The vast majority of enterprises surveyed indicated that their short-term investment plans will not change, and China is still regarded as one of the major strategic markets.
□ Our reporter Zhang Wei
It has been reported recently that some foreign-funded enterprises are worried about the business environment in China, and their profitability will be affected.
This statement is refuted by the newly released survey data of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade: 86% of the enterprises surveyed are satisfied with the policy of stabilizing foreign investment. The vast majority of enterprises surveyed indicated that China is still regarded as one of the major strategic markets.
In recent years, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade has made positive efforts in promoting trade and investment and promoting open cooperation. It is particularly worth mentioning that the Tradelink platform, as a comprehensive legal support platform for cross-border trade and investment of enterprises, provides legal consulting services for enterprises for 7×24 hours, and provided consulting services for enterprises for 18,000 times in the first quarter of 2022.
"According to the statistics of the first quarter, corporate consulting issues mainly involve five categories: international trade, international compliance, cross-border investment, dispute settlement and intellectual property rights, accounting for more than 95% of the total consulting volume, among which the conflict between Russia and Ukraine is a hot spot of recent corporate concern." Yu Yi, spokesperson and office director of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, told the reporter of the Rule of Law Daily.
The absorption of foreign capital increased rapidly year-on-year
Since the beginning of this year, in the face of uncertain and unstable factors such as the conflict between China and Ukraine, domestic epidemic situation and poor supply chain, the Russian government has accelerated the introduction of a series of policies and measures to stabilize foreign trade and foreign investment, and China has continued to become a hot spot for global investment due to its broad market opportunities and development potential.
The data is the best proof. According to statistics, in the first quarter, China’s absorption of foreign capital increased rapidly year-on-year, and the actual utilization of foreign capital in the country was 379.87 billion yuan, up 25.6% year-on-year, achieving "opening the door steadily".
The US Consumer News and Business Channel, The Wall Street Journal, CNN and other media believe that despite the epidemic, China’s GDP growth and foreign trade growth in the first quarter still exceeded expectations. In particular, the unexpected economic performance in January and February boosted economic growth, and many economic indicators exceeded the forecasts of economic analysts.
Yu Yi revealed that the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade has recently gained an in-depth understanding of the difficulties and policy demands faced by foreign-funded enterprises through research. The survey shows that 86% of the enterprises surveyed are satisfied with the policy of stabilizing foreign investment. On the whole, enterprise demands are embodied in "five expectations".
I look forward to fair competition. I hope to treat foreign-funded enterprises fairly in administrative law enforcement, financial support and government public procurement. Second, I hope that the specific implementation of epidemic prevention and control measures will be more accurate. U.s.-china business council released a survey, arguing that logistics and transportation were blocked and factories stopped production, which were the biggest challenges faced by Chinese and American-funded enterprises. Third, I hope to implement the negative list of foreign investment access. I hope to further clear up the investment obstacles outside the list and enjoy preferential policies such as converting imports into domestic products and investing in the west. I hope to continue to expand and open up. I hope to gradually expand the opening up of more service areas. I hope to accelerate the promotion of major projects. Some European-funded and Japanese-funded enterprises hope that local governments will ensure the use of electricity for labor premises, promote cross-border trade, introduce detailed rules for the implementation of environmental protection policies, continue to reduce taxes and fees, and accelerate the landing of major projects.
A number of interviewed companies said that the epidemic situation since the beginning of March will have a significant impact on revenue in 2022; At the same time, the vast majority of enterprises surveyed indicated that their short-term investment plans will not be changed, and China is still regarded as one of the major strategic markets.
A recent policy has brought new hope to enterprises in China. This policy is the Opinions of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council on Accelerating the Construction of a National Unified Market. A number of interviewed enterprises said that the above-mentioned documents clearly stated that it is necessary to establish unified market rules, break local protection and market segmentation, open up key blocking points in the economic cycle, and promote the smooth flow of commodity elements and resources, so as to build a "national unified big market" with high efficiency, standardization, fair competition and full opening, which is a great good news for foreign enterprises investing in China and will greatly enhance their confidence in stable operation and expanding investment in China.
"Under the new development pattern, the market potential of China will be fully stimulated, and the door to China’s opening will be further opened." Yu Yi said.
Officials have the highest evaluation of integrity.
The evaluation of China’s business environment by enterprises in China is also reflected in the 2021 China Business Environment Research Report (hereinafter referred to as the Report) recently released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.
According to the Report, the evaluation of China’s business environment by enterprises is increasing year by year. In 2021, the respondents’ evaluation of the national business environment was 4.38 points, 0.03 points higher than that in 2020. Among them, the eastern region, Sino-foreign joint ventures and traditional manufacturing industries rated the business environment higher, while the western region, resource industries and service industries rated the business environment slightly lower.
From the perspective of business operations, in 2021, over 70% of enterprises achieved revenue growth. Utilizing local resources and opening up markets are the main reasons for enterprises to invest, and "China’s consumption growth and middle class expansion" has become the most important business opportunity for enterprises to replace "digital technology development". Over 50% of foreign-funded enterprises regard China as the world’s top investment target. However, 28% of foreign-funded enterprises said that due to the global economic contraction, the rise of trade protectionism and the epidemic situation, additional investment in China is not planned for the time being.
Judging from the impact of the New Crown Pneumonia epidemic, under the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, 10.7% of enterprises’ sales revenue decreased by over 50%, 31% of enterprises’ sales revenue decreased by 20% to 50%, and only 30% of enterprises were unaffected or their sales revenue increased. Despite this, 83% of the enterprises surveyed have achieved breakeven through restructuring and cost reduction. Enterprises are generally optimistic about the development prospects in the post-epidemic era, and only 5% enterprises are pessimistic.
It is worth noting that the policy government environment has become the first-level indicator that enterprises pay the most attention to for five consecutive years (the first-level indicators in the evaluation index system of the business environment of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade include infrastructure, living facilities, policy government affairs, social credit, fair competition and social rule of law, etc.). It is understood that the policy government environment can be decomposed into four secondary indicators: policy implementation, policy fairness, government service efficiency and official integrity, with a five-point scale. Judging from the breakdown indicators, the interviewed enterprises have the highest evaluation of officials’ integrity, reaching 4.52 points, and expect the most policy fairness, reaching 4.44 points. From a regional perspective, the eastern region has the highest evaluation of the policy and government environment, and the evaluation of the central region has increased by 4% compared with 2020. From the perspective of the nature of enterprises, foreign-funded enterprises have the highest score on policy and government affairs, and the evaluation of state-owned enterprises has increased the most compared with 2020, with an increase rate of nearly 5%.
Strengthen mediation to resolve enterprise disputes
The issues that enterprises are most concerned about can also be seen in the consultation questions received by UNCITRAL.
According to Yu Yi, in the first quarter, international trade issues accounted for about 43% of enterprises’ consultations on the platform of Tradelink, mainly involving RCEP, two anti-guarantees, import and export policy requirements and other issues, which reflected the increasing concern of enterprises on regional trade arrangements and import and export restrictions of relevant countries.
International compliance issues account for about 20% of corporate consulting. Enterprises have many consultations on project management, employment system, sanctions response, etc. The establishment and improvement of overseas compliance system has gradually become the focus of cross-border trade and investment enterprises. Enterprises hope to avoid compliance risks, reduce the impact of sanctions and ensure the safety of overseas assets, personnel and information through compliance construction.
In addition, since the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, enterprises have paid close attention to the relevant international trade performance, and some enterprises have reported that they have received force majeure clauses from individual enterprises in some countries to refuse goods, postpone payment or cancel contracts, and face the risk of two-way force majeure breach of contract. In this regard, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade hosted a series of special training activities on the platform of Tradelink, and opened a hot column on the conflict between Russia and Ukraine to help enterprises understand the impact of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the United States and Europe on enterprises in related industries, and put forward countermeasures.
Yu Yi said that the Tradelink platform not only provides a completely open legal information inquiry service, but also provides two-way interactive consultation and support services, and the latter has achieved remarkable results in helping enterprises solve practical problems. Urging implementation and mediation are common and effective support methods in the near future. In particular, urging compliance has the characteristics of "small, fast and agile".
With the assistance of the embassy of a Central Asian country in China, Zhejiang CCPIT and Ruian CCPIT recovered overseas debts for Ruian enterprises by urging them to perform their duties.
Zhejiang International Commercial Legal Service Center recovered debts owed by Costa Rican customers for an enterprise in Wenzhou by urging performance.
The Shenzhen Council for the Promotion of Trade received a request from the industrial and commercial representative office of a European country, hoping to help resolve a dispute over a chip sale contract. After the enterprises in this country paid the payment according to the contract, the performance cost of Shenzhen enterprises rose sharply in the short term due to the epidemic, and they will face huge losses if they continue to perform the contract. They hope to postpone the delivery date or raise the order price. After mediation, the foreign party agreed to terminate the contract and the dispute was resolved.
Through patient and meticulous work, the Sichuan Provincial Council for the Promotion of International Trade successfully mediated an international trade dispute involving enterprises from a certain country and Sichuan enterprises for seven years.
"In the process of promoting the modernization of the national governance system and governance capacity, it is an important part for China enterprises to be better at using international rules to safeguard their own interests. In international trade, the more flexible enterprises are in using non-litigation dispute resolution methods such as arbitration, mediation and urging performance, the more favorable it will be for the high-quality development of China’s foreign trade. The UNCITRAL platform will continue to make efforts in this regard. " Yu Yi said.