China pushes to cooperate with more MNCs amid global challenges

China's efforts to build an institutional system conducive to high-level opening-up will encourage multinational companies to export more products manufactured by their plants in the country, said market watchers and business executives.

Their remarks emerged in response to a series of growth measures outlined by top policymakers during the tone-setting Central Economic Work Conference, which concluded on Dec 16 in Beijing. The remarks stressed that the country will make greater efforts to attract and utilize foreign capital, widen market access, promote further opening-up of modern service industries and grant foreign-funded enterprises national treatment.

Amid the global economic downturn and geopolitical uncertainties, these policies will further motivate foreign companies to boost investment in China and deem the country as one of their global or regional manufacturing bases for exports, said Nie Pingxiang, a researcher with the Beijing-based Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

Similar views were shared by Denis Depoux, global managing director of Munich, Germany-headquartered consultancy Roland Berger. "China's supply chains have improved as domestic and foreign companies invested heavily to modernize their production systems in 2021 when most of the global manufacturing sector was still badly hit by disruptions related to the COVID-19 pandemic."

"The continuous growth in China's exports, even in 2022, demonstrates the resilience and competitiveness of the country's supply and industrial chains," he said.

The value of China's foreign trade grew 8.6 percent on a yearly basis to 38.34 trillion yuan ($5.57 trillion) during the January-November period last year, while foreign-funded companies in the country saw their export value grow by 2.4 percent year-on-year to 6.87 trillion yuan during the same period, said the General Administration of Customs.

Amcor Plc, a packaging solutions provider headquartered in Zurich, Switzerland, opened a new plant in Huizhou, Guangdong province, in mid-December, with an investment of nearly $100 million. The factory is the largest flexible packaging plant in terms of production capacity in China, according to Amcor.

"This investment is a testament to our commitment to growing with our customers in China and throughout the Asia-Pacific region," said She Xin, vice-president and general manager of Amcor China.