On March 31, MOFCOM held a symposium with FIEs involved in the automobile industrial chain to understand their current business operations and policy demands. Participating FIEs pointed to three aspects regarding their observations on China’s business environment and market potential. First, they had full confidence in the future growth of the Chinese market. Some businesses said that production output and sales of the automobile market in China increased by 3.4% and 3.8% respectively despite chip shortage and the spread of Covid-19 in 2021. They also highlighted the outstanding performance of new energy vehicles (NEV) with both output and sales exceeding 3.5 million, up by 1.6 times compared to the same period of last year. Being optimistic of China’s long-term prospect of stable growth, many enterprises still saw China as one of the most important overseas markets. Second, FIEs welcomed China’s policy of expanding opening-up. Many business leaders said that the negative list for foreign investment market access introduced last year removed foreign equity cap for the car manufacturing sector, thus opening up broader space for foreign automobile companies’ development in China. They also found China’s commitment to opening-up very encouraging. Third, FIEs were strongly interested in China’s economic development strategies. Many believed that the innovative and green development philosophy China is pursuing now would facilitate automobile FIEs to follow through the electrification strategy, and they would invest more in NEV manufacturing and technology R&D in China.

At the symposium, some companies also offered recommendations and raised concerns on ensuring unimpeded logistics and stable industrial and supply chains, strengthening communication in policy-making and promoting international cooperation and exchanges on industrial standards, etc.

Moving forward, MOFCOM will work with relevant departments to keep stepping up communication with FIEs to timely address their difficulties and better support their development in China. We believe that our open and mega-sized market will create more opportunities for foreign companies to grow in China. Thank you.