Outlook for 2022

Creating more opportunities for foreign firms

China has removed ratio restrictions on foreign ownership in the domestic passenger car-making sector, according to the 2021 negative list for foreign investment access which came into effect on Jan 1, 2022. This means China has further opened up the manufacturing industry to foreign capital following the securities, insurance and other financial services sectors.

According to a report on China's business environment released by the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, 59.5 percent of the surveyed US companies significantly increased their investments in China in 2021. In real terms, US companies' investments in 2021 increased 30.9 percent year-on-year to reach the level of 2018, that is, before the China-US trade dispute started.

That US companies are continuing to invest in the Chinese market shows the irreversibility of economic globalization and the failure of the "decoupling" campaign launched by Washington.

Also, China has been further integrating with other economies in the Asia-Pacific region and beyond, thereby strengthening global economic cooperation. In fact, it is the deepening cooperation among the region's economies that enabled the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership agreement to come into force on Jan 1.

The RCEP will not only facilitate trade and investment among the 15 member states through tariff concessions, but also improve the division of labor in the region and thus strengthen the regional supply chains－by implementing the rules of origin－and enhance its strategic value and position in the global supply chains.

While the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the global supply chains will prompt multinational companies to make their supply chains more resilient and flexible, the consolidation of China's status as a huge and key consumer market will help expedite the regionalization of the supply chains. And the strengthening of multinational companies' supply chains in China's market will create new opportunities for East Asian and Asia-Pacific countries to benefit from the Chinese economy and boost their own development.

Besides, to further promote economic globalization and regional economic integration as well as boost global cooperation in the digital economy and other fields, China has applied to join the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership and the Digital Economic Partnership Agreement. And at a time when anti-globalization sentiments have been growing in some developed countries, China is promoting economic globalization, supporting free trade, and helping propel the regional and global economies forward amid the pandemic.

Since developing countries lag far behind their developed counterparts in high-tech, some have fallen into the "middle-income trap". But China, thanks to technological breakthroughs and innovations, is becoming a leader in human sciences and technology by breaking the developed countries' monopoly in high-tech.

As a matter of fact, China's scientific and technological development is increasingly benefiting developing countries. Through the Belt and Road Initiative, China's infrastructure and digital technologies have reached many developing countries, which have used them to their advantage to alleviate poverty, boost their economic development and improve their people's livelihoods.

China has always advocated win-win cooperation. And developing countries will benefit from deepening economic cooperation with China, as they can raise their people's incomes and promote regional and global development. As China deepens reform and further integrates with the world, it will continue to contribute more to global economic growth and inject new dynamism in the world economy.

In short, an increasingly open China is creating more and more opportunities for foreign companies to share the fruits of its economic development by further opening up its market.

Pan Xiaoming is an associate research fellow with Shanghai Institutes for International Studies.

The views don't necessarily reflect those of China Daily.

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