The Swiss global financial group Cedrus Investment holds the opening ceremony of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing on May 31, 2023. Photo: Courtesy of Cedrus Group.

With the continuous deepening of China's opening up to the outside world, foreign capital keeps up increasing its presence in China. On May 31, the Swiss global financial group Cedrus Investment held the opening ceremony of its Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing.

In a round table dialogue held on the same day, Rani Jarkas, Chairman of Cedrus Investment, said that the company plans to invest 1 billion yuan in healthcare and innovative technology companies in China.

"We are confident to take advantage of the opportunities that China has offered in various fields and to invest more capital to promote its growth," Jarkas said.

The theme of this round table dialogue hosted by Cedrus Investment is "Seek Investment Opportunities in the World Today", which aims to gather wisdom from all parties nowadays, and provide useful reference for decision makers.

The round table dialogue mainly focused on three themes, including new hotspots regions for investment around the world, the signals released by geographical factors and China's relations with foreign countries, and what opportunities and challenges had China's promotion of high-level opening-up to the outside world brought to multinational companies.

Wei Jianguo, former vice minister of China's Ministry of Commerce, Wang Wen, Executive Dean of the Chongyang Institute for Financial Studies of Renmin University of China, and Rani Jarkas, Chairman of Cedrus Investment, and nearly a hundred important guests were invited to the round table dialogue.

Regarding the topic of which investment areas in the world will become new hotspots, Wei said that the current geopolitics is facing many uncertain factors. "The European and ASEAN markets have become new investment hotspots due to their large population and strong GDP," he said.

Wei also predicted that global resources, including capital, investment, talents, technology and manufacturing industries, will all move eastward to ASEAN in the next five years.

Therefore, the wave of Chinese enterprises' "go global" strategy not only provides new opportunities for Chinese enterprises, but also brings opportunities and challenges to foreign investors and many overseas industries and companies.

Recently, regarding the friendly message released by the meeting between the Chinese and American commerce ministers, Wang said that the impact of Sino-US relations on investment between the two countries is declining. "China will further promote institutional reform and release information on deepening international cooperation, which also represents the open attitude of the Chinese government and market, who aims to continue opening up the business environment, attracting foreign investment, and further demonstrating the high degree of integration of China and overseas economic and trade," he said.

At the end of the round table dialogue, Jarkas explained the new opportunities and challenges that China's promotion of high-level opening up has brought to multinational companies. "China has adopted 'green' and 'opening' as new development concepts, which shows the Chinese government's determination to high-level opening up and sustainable development," he said.

"The impact of the 'going out' strategy of Chinese enterprises on global trade and investment has made Chinese enterprises increased their global engagement. The reshaping of international business and trade norms will also have important implications for future investment strategies," the chairman said.

In addition to planning to invest 1 billion yuan in healthcare and innovative technology companies in China, Cedrus also focuses on medicine research and development, and mining industry. It also has advantages in high-tech development.

"We hope to make full use of our strengths to create a win-win situation for Chinese companies, the chairman said. "Our understanding of Chinese culture, government policies and Chinese people, have given us the confidence to take advantage of opportunities in various fields and invest more capital to Chinese market so as to promote its growing."

The opening of the Asia-Pacific headquarters of Cedrus is a milestone in the group's development blueprint, which indicates that the group will further enhance its influence in the Chinese market.