2010-08-06 16:37

Zhang Xiaoji, a senior researcher of international business at the DRC, told Xinhua also on Friday that various facts and figures pointed to the attractiveness of China for foreign investors. "A fundamental aspect of a country's FDI climate is its overall economic conditions. The rapid and stable growth of China's economy has provided great opportunities for multinational companies," Zhang said.

An undeniable fact was that China remained a top destination for investment by foreign companies, and many multinationals were driving growth abroad through their Chinese operations, said Zhang.

In 2009, General Motors filed for bankruptcy in the US, but its sales in China grew by 67 percent. It sold 1.21 million vehicles in China in the first six months of this year, beating its six-month US sales of 1.07 million for the first time in history.

Having tasted the benefits of doing business in China and faced with uphill struggles elsewhere, many multinationals had said they would expand their business in China, Zhang said.

In 2010, there were 690,000 registered foreign companies in China, investing more than $1,000 billion, according to the MOC.

Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said last month at a symposium attended by German entrepreneurs in Xi'an that it was impossible for a country whose investment climate was worsening to keep attracting such huge amounts of foreign investment.

John Ross said that sometimes what businesspeople said didn't matter so much. For them, "it is actually always their job to get a better deal and more concessions to increase profit further -- that's what they are employed to do so they can't be blamed for it," he said.

Among the people who pictured a worsening investment climate in China are also some anti-China politically motivated figures, Ross said. "They want to slow down China's economy, and they believe diverting FDI away from China will help do this."

However, "those people, who confuse politics with economics and business would normally make companies who listen to them lose a lot of money."