China’s open economy to play greater role on world stage

American companies are showing enthusiasm for the upcoming first China International Import Expo, which is scheduled between Nov. 5 and 10 at National Exhibition and Convention Center in Shanghai, according to the Ministry of Commerce (MOC).

US companies had strong willingness to strengthen cooperation with China, although there would not be an American pavilion in the Expo, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng told a recent press release.

Gao said the preparatory work for the Expo had come to the final stage as the exhibition booth arrangement work would be completed by the end of this month.

About 180 US companies have so far confirmed their participation in the event, with the number of firms that signed up for the event from the US ranking third among all the economies.

As for the business exhibition, US firms would cover fields such as high-end manufacturing, intelligent equipment, agricultural products, culture and sports, Gao added. Some of them are Fortune 500 enterprises or leading companies and institutions in the industry.

The American enterprises and enterprises hope that the event will build a high-level platform for them to communicate and cooperate with related Chinese departments, local governments and enterprises, so as to tap potential and seek opportunities for cooperation at local level.

Many countries hope to further enhance economic and trade cooperation with China through the Expo. Taking Russia as an example, the bilateral trade volume between China and Russia reached $77.15 billion in the first three quarters. The growth is faster than that between China and its other trade partners.

Russia will participate in the Expo as a guest of honor. The Expo will build a new platform for the Russian companies to display high-quality featured products, explore potential for economic cooperation, and expand bilateral practical cooperation.

China had recently made progress on bilateral and sub-regional trade and economic negotiations, said Zhou Yu, a researcher of the Institute of World Economy under the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences.

The achievement was fundamentally attributable to the good momentum of China’s open economy, which provided greater opportunities for foreign countries, Zhou told People’s Daily Overseas Edition.

China had maintained an export-oriented economy for a long time. But now, driven by economic restructuring and upgrading, its domestic demands were replacing exports to become a new driving force for economic growth, Zhou said, adding that such change provided rare opportunities for foreign enterprises, and the Expo was where to seek such opportunities for them.

In the first half of 2018, the global foreign direct investment (FDI) fell by 41 percent over the same period and hit the bottom in the latest 10 years, according to The Global Investment Trends Monitor issued by United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.

However, China overtook the US as the top destination of FDI in this period. It has fully reflected that foreign investors are confident with China’s investment environment and have expectations on investing in China.

In the past four decades of reform and opening up, China maintained its policies on foreign investment utilization, kept making efforts to strengthen the protection of legal rights and interests of foreign-invested enterprises, and provided better services for global investors, the spokesperson said.

He noted that China had provided many development opportunities for foreign investors through opening its market even wider to the world, continuously reducing restrictions on foreign investment access and unleashing its market potential.

In the future, China would offer more convenient services to foreign investment and continue boosting global investors’ confidence, the spokesperson noted.

China was and would remain a major destination for foreign investment, said Zhou. Before, foreign companies invested in China for low cost production; they manufactured products in China and then exported them or sold them through intermediary trade. Now, as China is releasing its import demands and opening wider its trade and finance areas, more foreign investment is flowing to China to serve the Chinese market.