Global Times: Survey shows 90% of foreign firms feel satisfied or better about China's business environment

BEIJING, Nov. 1, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey of foreign businesses showed that the vast majority of those surveyed found China's business environment satisfactory or better, with most of them holding favorable views toward accessing the market and obtaining business premises, China's top trade promotion body said on Thursday.

Remarkably, a growing number of European businesses are optimistic about China's market prospects, while an increasing number of US businesses think the attractiveness of the Chinese market is improving, according to the survey.

The steadily improving sentiment of foreign businesses toward the Chinese market reflects both the brighter outlook of China's economy and better business environment, thanks to a slew of proactive measures by the Chinese government to boost growth and expand opening-up, experts said.

At a press conference on Thursday, Sun Xiao, a spokesperson for the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade (CCPIT) revealed that a recent survey of more than 400 foreign businesses showed 90 percent feel China's business environment was "satisfactory" or better in the third quarter, with the highest proportion of them offering an assessment of "satisfactory" or better for indicators such as "market access" and "obtaining business premises."

"In terms of the market situation, the foreign businesses that participated in the survey continue to be optimistic about the Chinese market," Sun said, pointing to significant improvement in European and US businesses' sentiment toward the Chinese market.

According to the survey, in the third quarter, 41.67 percent of European companies believe that the prospects for the Chinese economy this year are "good," an increase of 14.17 percentage points from the previous quarter. Also, 47.92 percent of the European companies surveyed believe the attractiveness of the Chinese market is "growing," 5.42 percentage points higher than that of the previous quarter.

Moreover, 60 percent of surveyed US businesses think the attractiveness of the Chinese market is "growing," up 15.26 percentage points from the previous quarter, according to CCPIT. That is significantly higher than the nearly 50 percent of all surveyed foreign businesses that think the attractiveness of the Chinese market is "growing."

Beyond improving sentiment, foreign businesses' willingness to invest in China is also increasing. Nearly 20 percent of surveyed foreign businesses plan to expand investment in China, up 2.07 percentage points, with willingness of EU businesses' to expand investment being relatively higher, with a 2.5 percentage point improvement from the previous quarter, the survey showed.

Optimizing environment

The survey showed that foreign businesses have been able to truly feel the improvement in China's business environment following a slew of measures, including streamlining procedures, expanding opening-up and continuously sending signals of further opening-up, said Zhou Mi, a senior research fellow at the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

"These measures not only help foreign businesses expand their existing operations in China, but also see the potential for future development. Therefore, they generally feel China's business environment is satisfactory," Zhou told the Global Times on Thursday.

As part of China's broad efforts to optimize the business environment, CCPIT has held more than 540 symposiums on foreign-funded enterprises and conducted field surveys on more than 3,300 foreign-funded enterprises, among other measures, Sun said, adding that CCPIT also recently organized four trips to localities for foreign businesses.

"What we can feel from this is that foreign businesses are optimistic about the Chinese market and have strong confidence in China," the CCPIT spokesperson said.

Li Changan, a professor at the Academy of China Open Economy Studies of the University of International Business and Economics, said that China's efforts to optimize the market environment for foreign businesses are not only comprehensive but also targeted, so as to address specific issues faced by foreign companies.

"Relevant policies have also been refined to address various issues, including reducing barriers for foreign businesses and lowering the burden for them," Li told the Global Times on Thursday. "In light of China's emphasis on high-standard opening-up, it is natural that foreign businesses hold China's business environment in higher regard."

In addition to efforts to optimize the business environment, China has also moved steadily to open up more sectors for foreign investment. For instance, starting on Friday, China will implement a new, shorter negative list of sectors that are off-limits to foreign investment, meaning more areas are open to foreign businesses.

The biggest highlight of the new negative list is that it marks the end of all restrictions on foreign investment in the manufacturing industry, according to a notice issued by the National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce in September.

In addition to the manufacturing sector, China has also been continuously expanding opening-up in other fields such as the services industry and the financial sector. Last week, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology launched a pilot program for expanding opening-up in value-added telecom services in four designated areas in Beijing, Shanghai, South China's Hainan and Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong Province.

Foreign businesses' growing optimism about the Chinese market also comes as Chinese policymakers have been stepping up policy measures, including cutting the reserve requirement ratio and lowering interest rates, to boost economic growth. Markets are also closely watching for further support measures from China, after the Ministry of Finance said earlier this month that it will introduce a package of targeted incremental fiscal policy measures in the near future to boost the economy.

In a sign of improving economic activity following the policy measures, China's manufacturing purchasing managers' index, a gauge of factory activity, rose to 50.1 in October, marking a return to expansion territory from 49.8 in September, official data showed on Thursday.

Zhou said that as the global supply faces challenges, China's growing market scale and spending power offer foreign businesses better options with stable supply chain and lower risks.