“We encourage foreign firm’s [Chinese] R&D centres to undertake major research projects,” Jin Zhuanglong, China’s minister of industry and information technology, said during the forum symposium on Monday.
China’s foreign firms fear golden era over as Beijing aims to ‘solidify control’
China’s foreign firms fear golden era over as Beijing aims to ‘solidify control’
“We will provide service and safeguards for worldwide scientists, entrepreneurs and investors who come to China to innovate and start businesses,” Jin added.
The China Development Forum, which began in 2000, is typically one of the few venues where foreign business leaders may have a chance to interact with high-ranking Chinese officials after their annual “two sessions” parliamentary gathering where economic goals are laid out.
Beijing is looking to revive confidence in the Chinese economy at home and abroad as inbound investment slows amid geopolitical tensions.
During the opening session on Sunday, Premier Li Qiang said China would introduce more rules to bring down some of the barriers faced by foreign companies, including to market access, public tendering and cross-border data flows.
And on Monday, Jin tried to burnish the Chinese market, lauding the local entrepreneurial and innovative drive, coupled with massive market demand, abundant business opportunities, and comprehensive industry support – all of which he said were favourable to multinational companies’ development.
Still, his message on R&D centres came after a number of high-profile departures and scaling down at such facilities in recent years, due to various factors that have included the citing of geopolitical risks.
After Jin’s speech, Ola Kallenius, chairman of Mercedes-Benz Group, said at the same symposium that remaining open to different technological concepts and approaches – especially in rapidly evolving technologies such as autonomous driving – would help strengthen China’s position as an innovation hub.
He called on China, which is now the world’s largest automobile exporter, to create “harmonised international standards and regulations” to provide mutual benefits and ensure free trade.
China’s hi-tech push for computing power, AI gains face big hurdles: analysts
China’s hi-tech push for computing power, AI gains face big hurdles: analysts
In October, the European Union launched an anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles amid concerns over the growing number of relatively cheap China-made cars crowding out domestic producers within the bloc. Beijing has pushed back against the move, accusing it of being “selective” and “protectionist”.
Meanwhile, Kallenius said, China’s energy-consumption regulations for automobiles carried “a substantial risk” that entire vehicle segments would not be granted market access any more.
“Therefore, we hope policymakers will consider a more balanced review of the ongoing regulation process to ensure that diversified customer demands could still be met with diversified products,” Kallenius said.
Still, he said he expects the Chinese market to continue to grow and play a leading role in bringing innovations to the global auto industry.
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‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market
‘Overtaking on a bend’: how China’s EV industry charged ahead to dominate the global market
In subsequent remarks, Stefan Hartung, chairman of German electronics maker Bosch expressed confidence in China’s “promising” business landscape but also called on Beijing to reinforce intellectual property protections and facilitate deeper international exchanges.
“The modernisation of industrial systems highly relies on collaboration and openness,” he said.
Florent Menegaux, chief executive officer of the Michelin Group, expanded on that sentiment in his speech at the forum.
“We hope that the Chinese government will continue to take concrete actions to effectively deploy the national treatment to foreign-invested companies in China,” Menegaux said. “This would enable us to make further progress together in industrial policy discussions … among many other important topics.”
