Interview: Confidence level of foreign companies in China increasing -- Deloitte China chair

SHANGHAI, March 3 (Xinhua) -- As China continues to further open up for foreign investment, Deloitte, an internationally renowned accounting firm, has very positive prospects for the Chinese economy in 2023, said Deloitte China Chair Jiang Ying in a recent interview with Xinhua.

As China has rigorously pushed forward the steady economic recovery to promote high-quality development, the agenda for 2023 is set to be dominated by one topic in particular: growth.

"There are a lot of positive signs in terms of economic growth for 2023," said Jiang. "Since we have served a lot of companies at home and abroad, we have seen an increasing confidence level of our clients for business in the Chinese market this year, and we have seen actions from foreign companies to continue to invest in China."

She took the German automotive supplier Bosch as an example, which has invested around one billion U.S. dollars in a new research, development and assembly center in Suzhou, China this January, showing the company's positive expectations for the Chinese economy.

Jiang also noted an interesting movement which she called "the second wave of localization" of foreign companies doing business in China.

"When foreign companies first came to China, they looked at China as a world manufacturing place and then set up R&D centers or put more value chains in China," Jiang said, adding that now we are seeing the second wave of localization, which means foreign companies are bringing more advanced products or new products to meet the needs of Chinese consumers and stay competitive in the Chinese market.

Despite the gloomy and uncertain global investment environment, China remains one of the most attractive investment destinations in the world.

Foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland in actual use expanded 6.3 percent year on year to 1.23 trillion yuan (178.3 billion U.S. dollars) in 2022, according to the Chinese Ministry of Commerce.

From the perspective of industry, Jiang said that China is in a key position in the global supply chain and has strong development potential in many fields such as new energy and low-carbon industries, providing significant opportunities for global economic growth as well as creating new opportunities for foreign enterprises involved in the Chinese market. (1 U.S. dollar = 6.9 Chinese yuan)