Wen assures foreign firms in China

By Wu Jiao and Wang Xiaotian (China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-14 07:04
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Premier Wen Jiabao and Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of the World Economic Forum, attend the opening of this year's meeting held in the port city of Tianjin on Monday. [Yang Shizhong / China Daily]
TIANJIN - Premier Wen Jiabao assured foreigninvestors on Monday that China is still committed to creating an openand fair environment for them, amid recent complaints by some executivesof multinational firms.
"I wish to reiterate here that allenterprises registered in China according to Chinese laws are Chineseenterprises. Their products are made-in-China products," Wen said at theopening ceremony of the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting ofthe New Champions, also known as the Summer Davos, in the northern portcity of Tianjin.
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Chinagives equal treatment to products produced by foreign or Chineseinvested enterprises in government procurement, Wen told the forum.He also said China places a high priority onintellectual property rights protection and has already made this anational strategy. The country is ready to conduct exchanges and enterdialogue with other countries on this issue, he said.
Wen made the remarks amid complaints fromsome investors about China's business environment. In the past fewmonths a number of executives, including those from leadingmultinationals General Electric, Siemens and BASF, have commented onwhat they see as a tougher operating environment for foreign businessesin China. They cited "discriminatory" government practices andregulatory barriers to foreign investment.
They also complained about governmentprocurement rules, saying that multibillion-dollar annual governmentpurchases favor domestic companies.
Wen dismissed the concerns, saying that thesurge in foreign investment demonstrated China's continuing attractionto foreign investors, and stressed Beijing would continue to "improve"laws and policies related to foreign enterprises.
Wen said China's huge market volume, soundinfrastructure and stable and fair market environment were attractingmore and more multinational enterprises to invest and establish businessin China.
According to figures cited by Wen, more than470 of the top 500 global companies had established a presence inChina. By July China had received $1.05 trillion of foreign investmentin cumulative terms, ranking first among developing countries for 18consecutive years .
In the first seven months of this yearforeign investment in China increased by 20.7 percent over the sameperiod last year, Wen said.
The three-day WEF meeting, which started onMonday, has attracted some 1,500 high-profile officials, scholars andbusiness leaders from nearly 90 countries and regions.
The forum has also previously been animportant platform for Wen to give keynote speeches on China's economicgrowth.
While Wen assured the world of China'sgrowth at previous forums, this time he signaled how China could sustainits economic growth after its stimulus packages have helped a globalrecovery.
He said China's stimulus package made thecountry one of the first to recover from the financial crisis, and thecountry also managed to control fiscal risks.
"China's economic growth has provided majordevelopment opportunities for multinationals and created huge demand formajor economies and neighboring countries," Wen said.
"It has become the engine of world economicrecovery," he said.
Wen also said "China has the confidence, thefavorable conditions and the capacity to obtain sustainable growth inthe future".
He said China would pursue and establish along-term mechanism to expand domestic consumption.
Innovation, an upgrade of industrialinfrastructure and advances in technology would lead to more sustainabledevelopment, he added.
The country's economy is moving in the rightdirection and would secure a growth rate of 9.5 percent this year, saidJustin Yifu Lin, chief economist of the World Bank, on Sunday.
Some analysts predicted China's growth ratewould cool to 8 percent in 2011 partly as a result of tighteningmeasures on the housing market.
"Temporary pain is unavoidable when Chinaseeks more balanced, healthier growth, but I cannot see any possibilityof a hard landing or slump," said Li Wei, economist with StandardChartered Bank.
"It is the right time for China to deepeneconomic restructuring and pay more attention to the quality of growthwhile keeping stable economic development."
Long Yongtu, secretary-general of theTianjin-located G20 Research Center and former vice-minister of foreigntrade, predicted China would still maintain a double-digit growth ratein 2010 and a second round of stimulus measures was not needed.
Hu Yuanyuan contributed to this story.