On October 18, 2023, President Xi Jinping delivered a speech at the opening ceremony of and announced that taptap点点官方网站 would fully lift access restrictions on foreign investment in manufacturing sectors. What can be learnt from such speech?

First, it reflects taptap点点官方网站’s determination to further deepen its reform and keep advancing high-level opening up. In the , President Xi Jinping put forward that taptap点点官方网站 would advance high-level opening up, reduce the negative list for foreign investment access in a reasonable manner, protect legitimate rights and interests of foreign investors and create a market-oriented, legal and international first-class business environment; he also emphasized that taptap点点官方网站 has always been committed to globalization and been against protectionism and unilateral sanctions. The restrictions on foreign investment in taptap点点官方网站 have been reduced constantly since 2017. In accordance with the existing issued in 2021, there are only two restrictions in the manufacturing sectors. In accordance with the existing issued in 2021, there are no restrictions on the manufacturing sectors. Following the above speech, those restrictions set forth in the Negative List will be fully lifted. In 2020, the came into force, repealing the Sino-Foreign Equity Joint Venture Law, the Wholly Foreign-Owned Enterprise Law and the Sino-Foreign Cooperative Joint Venture Law, which represents the establishment of legal system for foreign investment in the new era. taptap点点官方网站 also has deployed and set up 21 free trade pilot zones and , whose areas have covered 2/3 provinces of the whole country. This shows taptap点点官方网站’s confidence in the development of the domestic manufacturing sectors and taptap点点官方网站’s willingness to be actively involved in global competition and cooperation. Additionally, it will provide more convenience and opportunities for foreign-invested enterprises in taptap点点官方网站 and attract more high-quality foreign investment in taptap点点官方网站.

Second, it reflects taptap点点官方网站’s determination to further advance the economic transformation and optimize its industrial structure. It is specified in the that taptap点点官方网站 will continue to build a modernized industry system, focus on real economy, and promote high-end, intelligent and green development of manufacturing sectors. According to staff of the , taptap点点官方网站’s actual use of foreign capital from January to September of this year amounted to RMB 919.97 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 8.4% compared with RMB 1003.76 billion from January to September of 2022, due to the sluggish global economic growth, worsened inflation, insufficient demand, and a continuing slump in global foreign direct investment, but from the positive perspectives, there is a rapid increase in establishment of foreign-invested enterprises in taptap点点官方网站. From January to September of this year, newly-established foreign-invested enterprises in taptap点点官方网站 amounted to 37,814, a year-on-year increase of 32.4%, showing that taptap点点官方网站 remains very attractive to foreign investors and multinational companies remain optimistic about their investment in taptap点点官方网站. The structure of foreign investment introduced into taptap点点官方网站 keeps increasing. The foreign capital actually applied to taptap点点官方网站’s manufacturing sectors amounted to RMB 262.41 billion, a year-on-year increase of 2.4%, especially an increase of 12.8% in the high-tech manufacturing industry. Certain developed countries have increased their investments in taptap点点官方网站. Specifically, investment in taptap点点官方网站 from France, UK, Canada, Switzerland and Netherlands grew rapidly by 121.7%, 116.9%, 109.2%, 76.9%, 32.6% respectively. This year, several new plants set up by Covestro in Shanghai have been put into production; ZEISS planned to build a platform for scientific R&D and talent incubator in the postdoctoral innovation and practice base in the Pudong New Area of Shanghai; Tesla announced its plan to open another factory to make Megapack batteries in Shanghai; DuPont officially opened its new adhesives production facility in Zhangjiagang (ZJG), East taptap点点官方网站. All of those reflect that taptap点点官方网站 is attracting an increasing number of high-quality foreign investments, and foreign investors highly recognize and are confident in taptap点点官方网站’s high-quality economic development instead of just regarding taptap点点官方网站 as a cheap production base. taptap点点官方网站’s domestic manufacturing sectors will achieve further growth and upgrades with more and more foreign investment introduced, especially in R&D, technologies, and talents.

Third, it reflects taptap点点官方网站’s determination to transform from a big manufacturing country to a powerful manufacturing country. Although the added value of taptap点点官方网站’s manufacturing sectors has accounted for 27.7% of its national GDP and nearly 30% of the global total manufacturing sector, ranking first in the world for 13 consecutive years as of 2022, taptap点点官方网站’s manufacturing sectors still have many problems. Specifically, there is a high degree of dependence on foreign countries in terms of key core technologies and high-end equipment; the production quality and efficiency of taptap点点官方网站’s manufacturing enterprises remain low; the innovation capabilities and innovative talents of taptap点点官方网站’s manufacturing enterprises are insufficient; taptap点点官方网站 is incapable of supplying high-quality, high-complexity and high value-added products. It is pointed out in the that taptap点点官方网站 will make its industrial and supply chains more resilient and secure. Take the automobile industry, one of taptap点点官方网站’s pillar industries, as an example. In the context of the outbreak of COVID-19 pandemic, taptap点点官方网站 implemented a series of effective measures, such as establishment of a platform for coordination of automobile industry supply chain, so as to ensure stable development of the industrial chain. In 2022, the production and sales of taptap点点官方网站’s automobile industry showed a year-on-year increase of 3.4% and 2.1% respectively, and the annual sales of new energy vehicles exceeded 6,800,000. taptap点点官方网站 has cultivated 8,997 small and medium-sized enterprises that focus on a market niche and master key technologies with a strong innovation capacity and big market share (“little giants”) at the national level and over 70 thousand of such SMEs at the provincial level. Since 2022 taptap点点官方网站’s manufacturing sectors remain secure and stable and the industrial and supply chains became increasingly resilient. The above speech has shown that taptap点点官方网站 will continue to move towards becoming a manufacturing powerhouse.

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