SCIO press conference on promoting high-quality development to set the stage for building a modern socialist country in all respects
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 20, 2023
CNBC:
I have two questions. First, what are this year's new plans for attracting foreign investment, and in which sectors specifically? Second, the unemployment rate of young people and college graduates was relatively high during the pandemic. What are this year's employment trends, and what policies are going to be released to support employment? Thank you.
Zhao Chenxin:
Let us invite Mr. Li to answer the question about employment and Mr. Yang about the utilization of foreign investment.
Yang Yinkai:
I will answer your question about the utilization of foreign investment. In 2022, China achieved fruitful results in attracting foreign investment. Overall, we saw the quality of foreign investment in China improving amid a steady growth, and three new changes emerged in this regard. First, the quality of foreign investment in China continued to improve, with the actual use of foreign capital in manufacturing and high-tech industries up by 46.1% and 28.3%, respectively. Second, sources of foreign investment were more diversified. Investment from the EU and countries along the Belt and Road increased by 92.2% and 17.2%, respectively. Third, the regional distribution of foreign investment tended to be more balanced. The actual use of foreign investment in China's central and western regions grew by 21.9% and 14.1%, respectively. In January 2023, foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded 14.5% year on year to 127.69 billion yuan, getting off to a good start. The increasing foreign investment in China and its optimized structure have fully demonstrated the confidence of global investors in the country's development.
This year, in terms of attracting foreign investment, we will further implement the decisions and plans of the CPC Central Committee and the State Council and expand institutional opening up regarding rules, regulations, governance, and standards in a steady manner. We will strive to foster a market-oriented and law-based world-class business environment to support global investors to invest in China and promote the high-quality development of our work to attract more foreign investment. We will focus on the following three aspects.
First, we will implement the plans listed in the Outline of the 14th Five-year Plan (2021-25) and advance opening up in telecommunication, internet, education, culture, medical care, and other sectors in an orderly manner. We will further ease restrictions apart from the foreign investment negative list to ensure that foreign-invested enterprises enjoy all policies on an equal basis.
Second, we will ensure the implementation of all policies that have been issued. We will fully implement several policies and measures focusing on the manufacturing industry to promote the expansion of foreign investment, stabilize the stock and improve investment quality. This includes the new version of the Catalogue of Industries for Encouraging Foreign Investment, guiding more foreign investment toward sectors such as advanced manufacturing, modern services, high and new technology, energy conservation and environmental protection, and toward the central, western and northeastern regions.
Third, we will enhance foreign investment promotion and services, leveraging major foreign investment projects in China to set better examples, and promoting the improvement of local mechanisms. We will work in unison between the higher and lower levels of government, and provide full-process services. We will organize and conduct a series of international industrial investment cooperation activities to create a platform for multinational companies and local investment attraction.
I would also like to emphasize that China has always been proactive in implementing high-level opening-up policies. We will encourage foreign investors to invest in the Chinese market with a more open and inclusive attitude. Global investors are welcome to invest and do business in China. They can play a greater role in building a new dual circulation development paradigm, with the domestic economy and international engagement reinforcing each other and achieving more significant progress.
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