Chinese firms in US upbeat

Despite unfamiliar regulations, cultural barriers and high operating costs, most Chinese companies doing business in the United States describe their experiences as successful and are optimistic about the future, according to a survey by China Daily and APCO Worldwide.

One-third of polled company executives said their operations in the US market had been "very successful", while 61 percent described the experience as "somewhat successful". Only 6 percent of respondents answered "unsuccessful" or "very unsuccessful", according to the survey conducted in November and December.

The logos of Chinese electronics companies TCL and Huawei Technologies are shown at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Chinese companies have shown an increasing interest in investing in the US. [Photo by Wang Jun / China Daily]

"The US market, on the whole, is quite open and limitations to foreign direct investment are not the most severe in the world, nor are there special limitations for Chinese investments," said Lu Jinyong, director of the China research center for FDI at the University of International Business and Economics.

"Investment can enter the US rather freely except for prohibitions or limitations in industries with the military, natural resources and other key sectors like banking, ports and aviation."

The survey's sample consisted of 51 top executives - CEOs, presidents, vice-presidents and managing directors - from 46 China-based enterprises with at least 10 employees in the US. The respondents represent various locations and years of US operations, and multiple industries, including sales, manufacturing, professional services, banking and real estate.

"As more Chinese companies go global and come to the United States, they add a dimension to the close economic and trade relationship between the world's two largest economies," said Larry Lee, China Daily USA president and editor-in-chief.

Despite generally "successful" entries into the US market, 71 percent of respondents still said the experience had been "hard".

Of this group, 18 percent described the experience as "very difficult" while 53 percent said "somewhat difficult".

For 10 percent of the executives polled, bringing their companies to the US was "very easy". Another 18 percent answered "somewhat easy".

Nearly three-quarters, or 73 percent, said their companies had ventured into the US primarily to expand their share of an industry market. For 14 percent, the top goal was increasing brand recognition, while 8 percent said they had been seeking access to new technologies.

"Chinese investment in the US will keep fast growth, especially in sectors of manufacturing and infrastructure, as the US welcomes FDI to lift its economy amid the initiative of re-industralization," said Ge Shunqi, deputy head of the Institute of International Economics at the Nankai University in Tianjin.

"The blocking of Chinese investment is accidental and investment investigations are not the mainstream idea in the US."

China's non-financial direct investment in the US surged 66.4 percent year-on-year in 2012, much higher than China's non-financial outbound direct investment which rose 28.6 percent to $77.22 billion, according to the Ministry of Commerce.