How Did Guangdong'S Newly Established Foreign-Funded Enterprises Exceed 3 Million Top Students Last Year?

Guangdong, a top economic student, has always been a major province in attracting foreign investment. The news of the draft foreign investment law has become the focus of attention of members of the Guangdong delegation.

On the afternoon of March 10th, the thirteen session of the two session of the National People's Congress held a plenary session of the Guangdong delegation. In addition to considering the management mode of "national treatment plus negative list before admission", more speeches are focused on how the foreign investment law (Draft) promotes Guangdong's integration with international rules.

For example, Chen Rugui, the NPC deputy and mayor of Shenzhen, focused on the opportunity for Shenzhen to seize the implementation of foreign investment law. He said at the meeting that the draft foreign investment law highlighted the integration with the rules of international trade, and Shenzhen was one of the earliest cities in China to introduce foreign capital, with the greatest strength and the highest level of foreign capital utilization. Next, Shenzhen will further improve policies to attract foreign investment and take the initiative to join the world's top 500 enterprises.

A set of noteworthy background data is that in 2018, 35774 newly established foreign direct investment projects in Guangdong increased by 1.3 times compared with the same period last year.

Some members of the Committee and experts in the industry said that Guangdong attaches great importance to the deliberation of the draft foreign investment law because Guangdong, as an economic top student, shoulders the heavy responsibility of deepening reform and opening up. In particular, as a big province of foreign investment, Guangdong hopes to use the opportunity of foreign investment law to release the signal of developing a higher level open economy.

Guangdong's opening up and upgrading

In March 11th, Chen Wanling, director of the international economic and Trade Research Center of Guangdong University of Foreign Studies, told an economic reporter in twenty-first Century that Guangdong has always been a signboard for attracting foreign investment, and many major foreign investment projects are the first choice for Guangdong.

In July 2018, the world top 500 and BASF group of Germany chose to integrate their fine chemical industry base in Guangdong and Zhanjiang. As China's first wholly foreign-owned project in the heavy chemical industry, the total investment of the fine chemical integration base is as high as 10 billion US dollars, highlighting the important breakthrough that Guangdong has taken the lead in relaxing the foreign investment access to manufacturing industry in the whole country.

He said that foreign investment was once an important force to promote Guangdong's economic leap. "In the past long period of time, foreign investment can enjoy preferential tax and land prices in Guangdong, and Guangdong has also made great achievements in attracting foreign investment." Chen Wanling said.

According to the twenty-first Century economic report reporter combing, 2013-2018 years, a group of high-quality foreign investment projects concentrated in Guangdong, six years accumulated total foreign direct investment actually exceeded 987 billion 482 million yuan. In 2018 alone, the actual utilization of foreign capital was 145 billion 90 million yuan, an increase of 4.9% over the same period last year, and 35774 newly established foreign direct investment projects, an increase of 1.3 times compared with the same period last year.

Behind the rise of data, some changes are also quietly occurring.

In a previous interview with the economic news reporters in twenty-first Century, it was discovered that for foreign businessmen, the era of attracting foreign investment by the advantages of preferential tax and low land prices has passed. The main concern is mainly whether it can achieve long-term, stable and lasting development in the investment countries.

Jiang Ying, a member of the CPPCC National Committee and vice chairman of DDT China, has similar views.

In an interview with the media in March 10th, she said that tax subsidies are not a long-term solution to attracting foreign investment. If enterprises want to improve their competitiveness, they must look for the lowland of the highland and cost of the system. For foreign enterprises, the stability and anticipation of the investment place are more important.

In March 11th, Xiao Shengfang, chairman of the National People's Congress and President of the Guangdong provincial bar association, attributed these changes to "an important reason for the introduction of foreign investment law at this time". In his view, as China's door becomes bigger and bigger, the need to formulate a unified foreign investment basic law is even more prominent.

"The draft foreign investment law stipulates on important provisions such as national treatment, foreign exchange transfer and dispute settlement, which play an important role in building a stable, transparent and predictable investment environment and enhancing confidence in foreign investors." Xiao Shengfang told the twenty-first Century economic news reporter.

In Chen Wanling's view, Guangdong, as an economic top student and a large foreign capital importing Province, especially needs to rely on the opportunity of implementing the foreign investment law, and explores the formation of further opening up to the outside world.

Key exploration and integration with international rules

Lin Yong, Professor of the National People's Congress and professor of economics and management of South China Normal University, said after participating in the deliberations of the Guangdong delegation, Guangdong has the responsibility to continue to shoulder heavy responsibilities in opening wider to the outside world and attracting foreign investment.

In view of how Guangdong continues to do a good job of opening up "big articles", Lin Yong believes that the "Hong Kong and Macao advantage" is still the focus. In March 11th, Lin Yong told the economic report in twenty-first Century that Guangdong, as the forefront of reform and opening up, once accounted for 80% of Guangdong's foreign investment structure. Now it should continue to play the Hong Kong and Macao advantage in the construction of the big bay area of Guangdong, Hong Kong and Macao.

Chen Wanling also agrees with this. In his view, the key to further expand reform and opening up in the future is precisely how to promote the integration of Guangdong with international rules. "The director of Hong Kong and Macao lies in international rules, which is also needed by Guangdong and the state."

With the deepening of globalization and the acceleration of international capital flows, the "soft environment" of the rule of law has become an important element in attracting international capital. After entering the mainland, foreign enterprises choose the way of international arbitration when settling economic disputes due to the policy background and applicable law.

"Take Hongkong as an example, its internationalization and rule of law business environment is well known all over the world. If Guangdong can implement the foreign investment law fully, it will enhance the internationalization and rule of law business environment of Guangdong to a certain extent, and it can also form a greater attraction to foreign enterprises in Hongkong. Chen Wanling said.

In March 10th, Wang Jianjun, general manager of the National People's Congress and general manager of the Shenzhen stock exchange, said that foreign investment law can really play a role in promoting the reform of the domestic business environment. He suggested that Guangdong should take the initiative in meeting changes and promote market reform and improvement.

In Chen Wanling's view, the FTA is a new window for Guangdong to improve its opening level and open up to a higher level. It itself bears the task of reform pioneer. When exploring the international rules, Guangdong can release its hands and feet. First, it will put the "Hong Kong and Macao approach" in the pilot of the free trade area.

According to the twenty-first Century economic report reporter statistics, in 2018, the Guangdong FTA pilot area reform program was approved by the state, approved 40 reform autonomy, foreign investment negative list reduced to 45, promoted 91 reform and innovation experience in the whole province, made breakthrough in the legal services, financial payment and other areas of Hongkong service industry rules docking.