(Photo by Xing Guangli/Xinhua)
Zhou Wei, secretary of the CPC Kunshan Committee, expressed confidence of attracting foreign direct investment when taking a media interview before the opening of the 20th CPC National Congress in Beijing on October 16.
Zhou said Kunshan's biggest advantage is based on a full-fledged industry supply chain, which has enabled the city to get more and more investment from foreign investors despite the complicated international situation.
The increasing FDI inflows into Kunshan also revealed that Jiangsu Province remains to be a hot destination for foreign investment. According to the Ministry of Commerce, foreign investment into the province from 2012 to 2021 amounted to more than $240 billion, 18% of the country's total in the same period.
From January to July, the province's actual use of foreign investment reached $22.07 billion, a year-on-year growth of 24.3%. Foreign investment in manufacturing industry and reinvestment of earnings expanded by 48% and 163.9% year-on-year respectively.
Among the latest FDI developments, Merck KGaA of Germany began building its semiconductor base in Zhangjiagang City, its largest single electronics business investment in China.
BAUER has settled its compressor project in Taicang Port area and L'Oréal also kicked off construction of its first global Intelligent operation center in Suzhou Industrial Park. Suzhou became home to L'Oréal's first factory in China 26 years ago. Over the years, the factory has become the company's largest in North Asia thanks to Jiangsu's strong support for investment, talent introduction and innovation.
BSH opened a washing machine factory in Jiangsu in 1994, its successful entry to the Chinese market. Over the years, the company has expanded its presence in the province from manufacturing to R&D, and then building a regional headquarters.
In recent years, foreign investment in Jiangsu has featured two growths: more reinvestment of earnings, and more R&D facilities and regional headquarters.
"Although the international economic environment is full of uncertainty, multinational companies in Jiangsu this year have increased investment," said professor Zhang Erzhen of Nanjing University's Yangtze River Delta Economic and Social Development Research Center.
Lamipak, a global manufacturer and technical service provider of aseptic packaging, has recently started construction of its Phase II project in Kunshan. After 8 years of development in the city, Lamipak factory now ranks third in China and fifth in the world in terms of market share. Lamipak will also invest 2.4 billion yuan for Phase III expansion, which will boost the site's capacity to 39 billion packs and sales to 7 billion yuan per annum.
Over the past decade, the structure of foreign investment in Jiangsu has also been optimized. Of the total FDI, the proportion of investment into the high-tech industries jumped from 13.6% in 2012 to 24.4% in 2021.
Jiangsu is home to 331 regional headquarters and functional institutions of multinational companies. For example, after acquisition of Savio Group, Belgian company Vandewiele decided to make Wuxi City the headquarters for Savio's businesses in China and part of businesses in Europe. This included building a textile machinery R&D and manufacturing base in the city.
In September, Suzhou Industrial Park also welcomed the presence of Daikin, which will make an investment of one billion yuan to build its largest overseas R&D center to be operational in 2024.
