China to benefit global economy with further open up policies (2)

Better business environment for the world

"I think China's opening up has provided foreign companies with many business opportunities. When it comes to favorable policies and subsidies, foreign companies and their Chinese counterparts are equal," Qian Yu, President of CHEP Asia, an Australian company that serves customers in a range of industrial and retail supply chains, told People's Daily Online.

First entering China in 2006, CHEP has witnessed the development of China's opening up. According to Qian, in recent years, Chinese authorities have issued countless policies supporting foreign business, providing them easier access to enter the Chinese market.

"Our base is in Shanghai. The local authorities always invite us to meetings with other Chinese companies, explaining new policies to us, as well as soliciting our ideas and demands. We are treated just the same as our Chinese counterparts, and we are happy about that," said Qian.

Such favorable conditions have attracted many foreign companies and investments to China. According to a report released in October by the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, a research center affiliated with the Ministry of Commerce, from 1978 to 2018, China attracted over 2 trillion US dollars of non-financial foreign investment, with nearly 1 million foreign-invested enterprises settling in China. It has also been the developing economy with the largest foreign capital inflow for 27 consecutive years.

In addition to easier access to the Chinese market and institutional innovation that allows foreign investors better communication channels with the government and their Chinese partners, China's new ideas of opening up, such as setting up free trade zones, or promoting the development of the Belt and Road Initiative, have also provided golden opportunities for companies outside of the Chinese mainland.

Eric Kuo, the co-founder of R-Guardian, a Hong Kong company in Qianhai, Guangdong Free Trade Zone (FTZ), told People's Daily Online that the FTZ is a perfect place for start-ups from Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions to develop their business.

To attract talents like Kuo, a university-like incubator was founded in Qianhai in 2014, providing young entrepreneurs one-year free rent, a favorable tax rate, and assistance to connect with well-known angel investors and venture funds to those aged between 18-45. The center has so far helped 340 start-ups, 169 of which are from Hong Kong and Macao, while half of their projects have already obtained investment, worth a total of over 1.5 billion RMB (about $210 million).

"Favorable policies such as assistance to connect with investors are especially attractive to start-ups from Hong Kong and Macao, as many of us have been struggling to find investors due to the high operational costs at home," said the 27-year-old Hong Kong entrepreneur.

Echoing Kuo, Qian noted that CHEP has also gained significant benefits from joining China's Belt and Road Initiative, as they have been transporting Chinese-made automobiles to BRI countries such as Russia, Thailand and South Africa.

"Foreign companies can gain great benefits from China's opening-up policies. I believe that China will keep opening its doors to the world. We foreign companies can contribute to China's development, while we can also make our fortune from China's further opening up," Qian added.