Excellent business environment needs to experience self-comparison and global comparison and also needs continuous improvement. It also makes sense in China. Now, China has made great achievements in creating a better business environment. However, under the circumstance with accelerated restructuring of the global value chain and increasingly fierce global competition, this process should be accelerated to attract more and better multinationals to make investment in China and promote the industrial development and economic transformation and upgrading of China.

 

“From the perspective of the central government, I can feel that they are more open-minded,” Mr. Ding, an executive of a multinational in Tianjin, told International Business Daily.

 

Ding said that, nowadays, when drafting any document, related people and representatives of related chambers of commerce and associations are more willing to listen to what the enterprises say about their difficulties. Before the formal release of a document, the government will release an exposure draft to the public. For enterprises, there are more and more channels to voice their difficulties; there will be a response sooner; reasonable advice will be adopted. “This is the mind needed for opening-up. It will make the policies more scientific and effective and also promote the development of the enterprises.”

 

In recent years, the Chinese economy has entered the New Normal stage. The market is changing deeply, and decisive reform is being deepened in an all-around way. The sharp-nosed multinationals are paying close attention to the pulses of the Chinese market and the changes of the times from a global perspective.

 

The survey among the high management of more than 10 multinationals made by International Business Daily recently showed that, the recognition of multinationals for the Chinese market in terms of a variety of indicators are being improved. In terms of infrastructure construction, 75% respondents believed that there is a great improvement; in terms of the integrity of industry chains, 37.5% believed that it is very integrated, while 50% believed that it is relatively integrated; in terms of the honesty of the government, 12.5% believed that it is very honest, and 50% believed that it is relatively honest, while 37.5% believed that there are corruptions sometimes.

 

Related analysts believed that, business environment is a comprehensive concept, but multinationals need to take more complicated factors into consideration before making any investment. Although the traditional advantage of China relying on low labor cost has been weakened, the advantages relying on integrated infrastructure and industry chains still exist. With accelerated system reform and stricter building of the team of public servants, there will be more and more high-quality talents and the economic transformation and upgrading of the China will be accelerated. A new market is taking shape. Of course, the multinationals can feel these changes.

 

The latest data from the Ministry of Commerce indicated that the Chinese market is still attractive. In accordance with the data, from January to November 2016, a total of 24,355 foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, up 3% year-on-year; foreign investment in actual use reached RMB731.8 billion, up 3.9% year-on-year (excluding data from the fields of banking, securities and insurance).

 

Of course, the multinationals still have more expectations for the business environment of China. The results of the survey mentioned above showed that, 37.5% of the multinationals showed dissatisfaction with the legal services for business, and 25% showed basic satisfaction with the social credit, while 37.5% showed dissatisfaction with it; 50% believed that the intellectual property protection is good, while 50% believed that it is bad; 37.5% believed that regional business cost is very high, while 50% believed that it is high. On the list of main problems encountered by the multinationals covered by the survey during their production and operation, fierce market competition, high cost and heavy tax burden ranked the top 3, respectively mentioned by 62.5%, 50% and 37.5% of the respondents.

 

Related analysts believed that, excellent business environment needs to experience self-comparison and global comparison and also needs continuous improvement. It also makes sense in China. Now, China has made great achievements in creating a better business environment. However, under the circumstance with accelerated restructuring of the global value chain and increasingly fierce global competition, this process should be accelerated to attract more and better multinationals to make investment in China and promote the industrial development and economic transformation and upgrading of China. “I’m optimistic about the future of the Chinese market. We will continue to make investment in the central and western parts of China in 2017,” said Mr. Guo, senior marketing director of a multinational in Chongqing. Through the survey, many multinationals showed the same intention. 75% of the respondents believed that the economic development of China is stable so that they are full of expectations for the reform and opening up. China now is an ideal “habitat” for multinationals.

 

Source: Translated from Invest Guangzhou, February 9, 2017