Foreign funded enterprises still have a positive outlook on China's development prospects

The 6th Multinational Corporate Leaders Summit was held in Qingdao from June 18th to 20th. The theme of this summit is "Multinational Companies and China - Connecting the World for Win-Win Cooperation", which is a pragmatic measure taken by the Chinese government to steadfastly promote high-level opening-up and high-quality development, conveying a positive signal to the world that China continues to expand its opening-up and welcomes foreign investment.

The continuously expanding market size and sustained high-level opening up in China provide vast market space and investment opportunities for multinational corporations. Data shows that in 2024, there were 59000 newly established foreign-invested enterprises in China, a year-on-year increase of 9.9%, with actual use of foreign investment of 116.2 billion US dollars. This summit attracted 570 guests from 465 multinational companies across 6 continents, setting a new historical high; at the summit, a total of 40 key projects were signed with a total amount of 5.93 billion US dollars, and foreign-funded enterprises cast a "vote of confidence" for the Chinese economy with practical actions.

In the current international context of rising unilateralism and protectionism, the Chinese government has strengthened the confidence of foreign investment in China by striving to create a stable and open policy environment and providing high-quality and accurate services. On June 18th, the full value chain super factory project of Phoenix Contact China's second base started construction in Nanjing, Jiangsu, with a total investment of 1 billion yuan and a construction area of about 55000 square meters. After the project is completed, it is expected that the overall production capacity will increase by 2-3 times within 5 years. On June 27th, Lexus' new energy project base started construction in Jinshan District, Shanghai, making Toyota the second foreign car company to solely invest in China after Tesla. In addition to developing and producing pure electric models, Toyota will also simultaneously layout solid-state battery research and development, hydrogen energy application, and battery recycling technology. This indicates that the magnetic attraction effect of China's new energy vehicle industry chain has surpassed cost advantages and become a strategic highland for global car companies to compete for technological iteration and ecological reconstruction.

- Liu Qing is a reporter working at China Global Television Network（CGTN）. He can be reached by email: cemeka27mere@gmail.com