People look at a high performance rice transplanter at the 2022 World Manufacturing Convention in Hefei, east China's Anhui Province, Sept. 20, 2022. The 2022 World Manufacturing Convention opened Tuesday in east China, highlighting the latest products, technologies and applications in the manufacturing sector.(Photo: Xinhua)

China's manufacturing industry continues to maintain a good momentum of attracting foreign investment, Shu Jueting, a Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) spokesperson said on Thursday.  

Many multinational companies are optimistic about the potential of China's huge market, complete industrial system and infrastructure and stable social environment, Shu said, citing data that China's manufacturing industry attracted $33.73 billion of foreign investment in 2021, a year-on-year increase of 8.8 percent. 

"The good momentum has continued this year," Shu said.

China in October released a new version of a catalogue of industries to encourage foreign investment, and continue to incentivize foreign businesses toward advanced manufacturing, the service sector and the central and western regions, which aims to create a market-oriented business environment, and better support multinational companies investing in manufacturing in China.

The 2022 version contains 1,474 items, adding 239 and revising 167 items compared with the 2020 version.
 
The National Development and Reform Commission, China's top economic planner also said the revised catalogue will further helps stabilize foreign investment, optimize investment structure and shore up the expectation and confidence of foreign capital.

Shu said the MOFCOM will hold policy briefings with the foreign-funded enterprises to make the policies better known, and meanwhile, it will issue supporting implementation documents as soon as possible to ensure precise implementation.

Airbus in June signed a framework agreement with Suzhou Industrial Park on the establishment of Airbus China's new research center in the city of Suzhou, East China's Jiangsu Province, and Airbus said the center will provide research services in advanced manufacturing, hydrogen energy infrastructure, sustainability and electrification, future cabin and other new technologies.

In September, German multinational chemical company BASF held an inauguration ceremony for a new plant in Zhanjiang, South China's Guangdong Province. The new plant will have annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons of engineering plastics, bringing BASF's total capacity in the Asia Pacific region to 420,000 metric tons from 2023.

Global Times