FDI in actual use in the Chinese mainland expanded 6.1 percent year on year to 268.44 billion yuan in the first two months of 2023, according to data from China’s Ministry of Commerce.
In dollar terms, the inflow of foreign direct investment increased 1 percent year on year, to reach $39.71 billion, according to the Chinese news agency, Xinhua.
The service industry witnessed a 10.1 percent year-on-year increase in foreign direct investment inflow in the first two months of this year, while foreign direct investment in high-tech industries jumped 32 percent from last year’s level.
In particular, FDI in the high-tech manufacturing sector rose 68.9 percent over the period over the previous year, while FDI in the high-tech service sector rose 23.3 percent year on year.
In the mentioned period, FDI from countries participating in the “Belt and Road” initiative and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) increased 11 percent and 11.8 percent, year on year, respectively.
In a related context, global observers said that over the years, China has succeeded, from saving lives to reducing the impact on people’s daily lives, in achieving a balance between combating Covid-19 and advancing economic and social development, which enabled the country to continue serving as an engine of the global economy. .
In yesterday’s remarks, they noted that by helping other countries fight the pandemic and calling for concerted efforts to build a global community of health for all, China has also made great contributions to global health governance.
Magdy Al-Dahshan, former vice-president of the Faculty of Medicine at Al-Azhar University in Egypt, said that China had succeeded in combating Covid-19, pointing out that “China’s huge population was a challenge, but China took strong and preventive measures in order to protect its people.”
According to data released by the World Health Organization, as of March 1, more than 758 million confirmed cases of infection and more than 6.85 million COVID-related deaths had been reported in the world. China is among the countries with the lowest rates of severe disease and death.
Over the past three years, China has been adjusting its response to the pandemic as the situation evolves. It has also invested heavily to expand its treatment capacity and ensure medical supplies in the less developed rural areas of the country. Hospitals have spared no effort in treating the elderly and other vulnerable groups.
Beyond its borders, China has provided aid to other countries and shared its experience in fighting the coronavirus disease. So far, it has provided anti-epidemic supplies to 153 countries and 15 international organizations, and has co-hosted more than 300 exchange activities on pandemic prevention, control and medical treatment with more than 180 countries and regions and more than ten international institutions.
“The Chinese government has been very consistent with its people-centered principle in its fight against COVID-19, and its main goal is to protect everyone’s lives,” said Eduardo Regalado, a researcher at the Center for International Policy Research in Cuba.
In the past three years, China has effectively coordinated response to the pandemic and achieving economic and social development, recording an average economic growth of 4.5 percent from 2020 to 2022, exceeding the global average of about 2 percent. Hence, it strengthened its position as the engine of the global economy.
According to a survey conducted by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade, 99.4 percent of the foreign enterprises surveyed expressed confidence in China’s economic prospects in 2023.
“Growth in China is expected to rise to 5.2 percent in 2023, reflecting improved mobility,” the International Monetary Fund said in an update to its World Economic Outlook report.
Despite this pandemic, China’s gross domestic product reached a record high of 121 trillion yuan ($17.5 trillion) in 2022 after the country crossed the 100 trillion yuan threshold in 2020 and the 110 trillion yuan threshold in 2021, according to official data.
Khairi Türk, professor of economics at the Stewart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, hailed the policies China has taken to combat COVID-19 and saved millions of lives as an important factor behind the recovery of the Chinese economy.
“You have healthy workers going back to work in factories, in a healthy environment, the COVID-19 policies are the best proof that one has to endure short-term pain for the sake of long-term gain,” he said. On the other hand, international investment banks and financial institutions in general believe that China will remain the “engine” and “stabilizing factor” driving the global economic recovery.
According to the General Administration of Customs, China’s total merchandise trade volume reached a record high of 42.07 trillion yuan ($6.2 trillion) in 2022, up 7.7 percent year on year, leading the world for six consecutive years. Exports rose 10.5 percent to 23.97 trillion yuan ($3.5 trillion), and imports rose 4.3 percent to 18.1 trillion yuan ($2.6 trillion). Calling China one of the biggest drivers of the global economy, Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov said that after improving its COVID-19 policies, China will help fight the global economic downturn with its rapid development.
For his part, Liang Guoyong, chief economist at the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, said that China’s contributions were reflected in its stable production and strong exports that supported a global economic recovery on the supply side, as well as sound macroeconomic policies that were in the interest of the country’s and the world’s steady economic growth. .
In a telephone conversation with Ma Xiaowei, chairman of the National Health Commission of China, in mid-January, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus spoke highly of China’s efforts to combat COVID-19, and thanked China for maintaining long-term technical exchanges and exchanging information and data. epidemiological with the organization.
The two sides agreed to further strengthen technical exchanges and cooperation in the field of pandemic response, and work together to safeguard global health security.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, China has called for solidarity with the international community. The country has vigorously promoted international cooperation in combating COVID-19, calling for building a global community of health for all.
Over the past three years, China has shared information related to COVID-19 with the World Health Organization and countries around the world. China was the first to identify the pathogen and publish key information, including the genome sequence of the virus. It also established a mechanism for technical exchanges with the World Health Organization. China is also the first country to propose making COVID-19 vaccines a global public good, support the lifting of intellectual property rights for vaccines, and champion vaccine production cooperation with developing countries, which has given strong impetus to closing the global immunization gap.
In this context, Romina Sudak, a member of the China and Argentina Studies Group of the National University of Rosario, said that unequal access to vaccines endangered global efforts to combat the virus.
However, China has provided millions of doses of vaccines to other countries, which are the vaccines most available to people in developing countries, she said, stressing that China is implementing the vision of a community with a shared future for humanity with concrete measures.
As for Emery Nzirapatinya, a Rwandan expert on international relations, he said, “I was impressed by China’s active participation in promoting global health with a shared future. The Chinese leadership under President Xi Jinping’s focus on pursuing the common interest and common interests around the world is what strengthened China’s efforts to maintain good cooperation in global health.”
Tags: billion direct investment flows Chinese mainland increase
