The epidemic will have a certain impact on foreign investment in the short term - expand opening up, improve services, and stabilize foreign investment
(Source: Economic Daily 2020-03-04)
As a public health emergency, the COVID-19 epidemic will have a certain impact on foreign investment in the short term. The degree of impact on the absorption of foreign investment depends on the duration and scope of the epidemic, which also aggravates the wait-and-see mentality of investors. Although there are currently many difficulties in stabilizing foreign investment, as long as all parts of the country do a good job in epidemic prevention and control and do everything possible to provide services to foreign-invested enterprises and attract investment, the negative impact of the epidemic can be completely overcome.
Judging from the latest data, during the epidemic prevention and control period, Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province has made good progress in absorbing foreign investment, not onlyMajor projects such as Hang Lung, Kerry, and Sun Hung Kai introduced in 2019 are progressing smoothly. At the beginning of 2020, there was good news that PepsiCo will acquire Hangzhou Holmes Food Co., Ltd. for US$705 million.
1. Limited impact on attracting foreign investment
As a public health emergency, the COVID-19 epidemic will have a certain impact on foreign-invested enterprises in the short term.“For the sake of safety, some foreign-funded enterprises may choose to postpone investment. In addition, the movement of personnel is strictly restricted, which will also bring some inconvenience to investment activities, which will definitely affect the expansion of foreign investment.”Sang Baichuan, Dean of the Institute of International Economics, w88 casinoSaid in an interview with a reporter from Economic Daily. However, in the long term, the epidemic will have little impact on the absorption of foreign investment. Sang Baichuan said“From the perspective of epidemic prevention and control, China has adopted strong management measures in response to the sudden epidemic, and the results are very obvious.”
2. The impact on the global value chain is controllable
In the short term, many supply chains will be affected, and the value chain system will also be affected to a certain extent, as some companies suspend operations, restrict labor mobility, hinder logistics, and sluggish investment activities.“With the epidemic under control, the resumption rate of enterprises and the rapid economic recovery, China, as an important link in the global value chain system, still has irreplaceable functions.” Sang Baichuan said that China is the world’s largest manufacturing country, the largest country in global goods w88, and the world’s second largest economy. Such economic size and the close value chain, supply chain and production network system formed in the global economy determine that the epidemic cannot block China’s role in the global value chain division of labor system.
3. There are many investment opportunities after the epidemic
At present, my country has made positive progress in fighting the epidemic, and the resumption of work and production is proceeding in an orderly manner across the country. At the same time, our country has successively introduced a series of policies and measures in finance, taxation, insurance, social security, etc., which have played an important role in stabilizing the economy and stabilizing foreign investment. In the long run, in the fight againstTo achieve economic recovery and stabilize foreign investment during the epidemic, more support measures can be introduced.
Sang Baichuan believes that on the one hand, it is possible to consider establishing an enterprise support fund to respond to public security emergencies to accurately help those enterprises, including foreign-funded enterprises, that have been seriously affected by the impact of the epidemic; on the other hand, China is in a critical period of economic structural transformation and upgrading, promoting the upgrading of the manufacturing industry, and comprehensively improving the quality of economic development. During this period, China needs to deepen its opening to the outside world and actively utilize foreign capital. We should actively promote the comprehensive implementation of the Foreign Investment Law and improve the business environment for foreign investment.
In addition, in the process of China's economic transformation and upgrading, the service industry is facing great development opportunities. In order to enhance the competitiveness of the service industry and promote rapid development, China should also expand market access for foreign investment in infrastructure fields such as electric power, civil aviation, railways, postal services, and municipal public industries, and further expand its opening up to the outside world. Access restrictions for foreign investment must also be further relaxed in service industries such as finance, medical care, education, and elderly care. Sang Baichuan said:"Stabilize the expectations of foreign investment by striving to create an excellent environment for foreign investment and promoting institutional opening up."
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http://paper.ce.cn/jjrb/html/2020-03/04/content_413853.htm
