[Gao Feng]: Good morning, friends of the press. Welcome to the press conference of the 11th Central Fair, which is attended by: Mr. Wang Shouwen, the deputy director of the Organizing Committee of the Central Fair, vice minister of the Ministry of Commerce and deputy representative of the International Trade Negotiations; Ms. Wu Zhongqiong, the deputy director and secretary-general of the Organizing Committee and vice governor of the Jiangxi Provincial People's Government; Mr. Liu Dianxun, the deputy secretary-general of the Organizing Committee Secretariat and director of the Investment Promotion Bureau of the Ministry of Commerce; Ms. Liu Cuilan, the deputy secretary-general of the Secretariat of the Organizing Committee and director of the Department of Commerce of Jiangxi Province. I am the presiding officer of today's conference, the vice-director of the General Office of the Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng. Today, vice minister Wang Shouwen will introduce to you the situation of China's absorption of foreign capital, as well as the features and highlights of the 11th Central Fair. Vice Governor Wu Zhongqiong will introduce the overall preparations and comprehensive safeguards for the 11th Central Fair. After that, four spokesmen will answer questions of the journalists’ concern. Next, I would like to invite vice Minister Wang Shouwen to give an introduction first.

[Wang Shouwen]: Thank you, Mr. Gao Feng. Good morning, ladies and gentlemen, friends of the press. First, on behalf of the Ministry of Commerce and the Organizing Committee of the Central China Investment and Trade Fair, I would like to welcome all the friends who attended today's press conference and thank you very much for your important contribution to enhancing the influence of the conference.

With the approval of the State Council, the Central China Investment and Trade Fair has been held alternately in six central provinces since 2006. The 11th Central China Fair will be held in Nanchang, Jiangxi Province from May 18 to 20 this year. This year's central fair is of great significance for the implementation of general secretary Xi Jinping's important speeches on the International Cooperation Summit Forum on "Belt & Road", on the first China International Import fair and the most important speech on last year's Boao forum for Asia. This fair is also an important exhibition held in the critical year of building a well-off society in an all-round way and achieving the goal of the first century. It is also an important platform to promote China's further opening-up, implement the strategy of the rise of the central part of the country, promote high-level participation in international and domestic cooperation in the central part of the country, create a new high ground for inland opening-up and achieve high-quality development in the new era.

With this background, I would like to brief you on the current situation of China's foreign investment absorption and the main features and highlights of this Central China Fair.

I. The basic situation of attracting foreign capital throughout the country. In the first quarter of this year, the scale of attracting foreign investment reached 242.28 billion yuan, an increase of 6.5% compared with that of the same period last year. In terms of subdivision, the manufacturing industry attracted 75.36 billion yuan of foreign investment, an increase of 12.3%, which exceeded the overall level. The quality of attracting foreign investment has also continued to improve, with high-tech industries’ foreign investment attraction reaching 66.64 billion yuan, an increase of 50.6% over the same period last year. The high-tech manufacturing industry absorbs 25.97 billion yuan of foreign capital, an increase of 14.8%. The high-tech services industry attracted 40.67 billion yuan of foreign investment, an increase of 88%. While the scale of attracting foreign investment has increased steadily, the quality of attracting foreign investment has also been further optimized. Major developed countries have increased their investment in China, such as the U.S. investment in China grew by 65.6% in the first quarter, Germany by 80.6%, Netherlands by 65.9% and South Korea by 73.6%. Some large foreign-funded projects have also accelerated their growth. In the first quarter, the number of large projects with more than $50 million increased by 20% compared with that of the same period last year. Transnational corporations such as ExxonMobil, LG and Pross have set up enterprises or expanded their investment.

For the central region, growth has accelerated even faster. In the first quarter, the six provinces in central China attracted 15.93 billion yuan of foreign investment, an increase of 9.7% over that of the same period last year, which was 3.2 percentage points higher than that of the whole country. Jiangxi Province is the host province of the Central Fair, attracting 4.03 billion yuan of foreign investment, an increase of 38.3%.

With the rapid deceleration of global cross-border capital flows, China has maintained a steady growth in attracting foreign investment, which fully demonstrates the confidence of the international capital in China's economic growth and the recognition of China's investment environment. Next, I will give you a brief introduction to some of the main features and highlights of the 11th Central Fair.

In his congratulations to the 20th China International Investment and Trade Fair, President Xi Jinping pointed out the way forward for a successful exhibition in the new era. We will carry out President Xi Jinping's important instructions in depth and build the Central China Expo into a new high-level platform for opening up to the outside world. As far as the Central China Expo is concerned, we hope that this platform can be better run and play a more active and important role in opening up the central region and promoting the coordinated development of the region.

First, further enhance the level of internationalization, specialization and branding of the Expo Central China. In terms of internationalization, the 11th Expo Central China will invite foreign politicians and senior officials, heads of international organizations, especially multinational executives, overseas business associations, business groups from Hong Kong and Macao to attend the conference. The conference will also host a key forum and opening ceremony, closely following the theme of “high-level opening up, high-quality development – new policies, new industries, new opportunities”, it will highlight open improvement and innovation leading, provide research and inspiration for the central provinces to accelerate structural adjustment and opening up and improve international exchanges and cooperation for high-quality development. In terms of specialization, the exhibition is more pragmatic. The comprehensive exhibition area will increase the display of featured physical and advantageous industries, reflecting the industrial characteristics and advanced technology of the six central provinces. The theme activities will also focus on key industries and advantageous industries in the six central provinces, and will invite more professional investors and listeners to participate. In terms of branding, it will pay more attention to the core content construction and publicity of the exhibition. It will continue to hold forums for foreign-invested enterprises, dialogues between the mayors of the six central provinces and multinational corporations in order to continuously improve the quality of brand activities, further strengthen the brand effect of the expo, and try to build it into a “business card” in the central region.

Second, the seminars on foreign-invested enterprises will be hosted to understand the difficulties and problems encountered by multinational companies in the process of China's development and innovation, especially in the development of the central region, and listen to their opinions and policy recommendations on improving China's investment environment. At present, multinational companies are very active in getting registered, and more than 60 foreign-invested companies and representatives of foreign business associations in China have signed up for the conference.

Third, the symposium on the industry migration undertaking of the national economic and technological development zones in the central region will be held. At present, China has 219 national economic and technological development zones, which play a very important role in attracting foreign investment, expanding import exports, and promoting domestic economic growth. These development zones are located in coastal areas, central areas, and western areas. National development zones in coastal areas face the problem of how to move to the central and western regions. Through such a symposium, we will discuss how the industries in the coastal development zones should be transferred to the central and western regions, how the national development zones in the central region should optimize the environment, implement new development concepts, strengthen investment promotion, better industrial layout, and guide the industries in the coastal areas to transfer to the central and western regions. In these fields, we can conduct in-depth discussions on institutional mechanisms and regional cooperation. The national economic and technological development zones will undertake the industry migration symposium. The commercial departments of the six central provinces and 50 national economic and technological development zones will participate in the symposium. The responsible comrades of many state-level development zones in the eastern region will also come.

Fourth, the meetings on the promotion of investment environment and project matchmaking in the six provinces in the central region will be held, and dialogues between the mayors of the six provinces and multinational corporations will be held too. The meetings on the promotion of investment environment and project matchmaking between the six provinces in the central region and the multinational corporations will be innovative both in content and form, highlighting the effectiveness, and using the new media to promote the investment environment and related policies of the six provinces. In the dialogue between the mayors of the six provinces and multinational corporations, the representative mayors of the central provinces will hold talks with foreign-funded enterprises to introduce their industrial development plans, business environment and industry-related policies.

Fifth, we will continue to strictly implement the spirit of the CPC Central Committee’s eight-point
decision on improving Party and Government conduct and adhere to holding pragmatic, efficient, and frugal meetings. The expo will continue to be carried out in strict accordance with the relevant requirements and regulations of the central government on the strict control of large-scale forums relating foreign countries and exhibitions to ensure that the it is organized in a clean, efficient and safe manner.

Dear friends from the press, at the just-concluded second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation , President Xi Jinping pointed out that China will adopt a series of major measures on reform and opening up to strengthen institutional and structural arrangements and promote higher level of opening up. He emphasized that we should expand foreign market access in a broader field, make more efforts to strengthen international cooperation in intellectual property rights protection, increase import of goods and services on a larger scale, implement international macroeconomic policy coordination more effectively, and pay more attention to the implementation of the opening up policy. This is to make the further pledge that China’s determination to expand its opening up will never waver. We also hope that investors and investment introducers from all over the world can make full use of the Expo Central China as an important platform to attract foreign investment and expand opening up in the central region, deepen their understanding on the central region, and participate in the investment in the central region to share the dividends of China's economic development.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank the friends in the press for their attention to the Expo Central China once again. I also hope that you will be in Nanchang round May 18 to 20 for interviews. Thank you all.

Fourth, organize seminars for the representatives of overseas business associations. In order to give full play to the platform role of the China-Northeast Asia Expo in promoting the development of the export-oriented economy of Jilin Province, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade(CCPIT) will launch the activity of “Jilin Visit of the Business Associations of the Belt and Road” in Changchun, Meihekou and Siping in August this year and organize “seminar for Jordanian SMEs to explore the Chinese market” and the “seminar on the economic and sustainable development of Chambers of Commerce and Industry of BRICS, ASEAN and Lancang-Mekong Countries”. Attending will be 50 senior business representatives from business associations of countries along the Belt and Road from South Africa, Laos, Vietnam and Jordan. They will also participate in this Expo, exchange with local governments, and conduct economic and trade matchmaking with enterprises.

In the next month, the CCPIT will work with the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the Jilin Provincial People's Government to make more efforts, speed up the detailed work programs, design better activities, and invite more merchants and representatives. We will strive to implement the activities by high standards and to a higher level, achieve more pragmatic results, and make new and greater contributions to promoting regional economic cooperation in Northeast Asia.

Thank you.

[Gao Feng]: Thanks for the introduction given by Mr Chen Jian’an. Next I will give the floor to Mr Zhu Tianshu.

[Zhu Tianshu]: Distinguished guests, friends from the press, good morning. Under the support of the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and other ministries, Jilin Province has successfully organized 11 China-Northeast Asia Expos since 2005 and will hold the 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo in August this year. Therefore, I would like to take this opportunity, on behalf of the organizing committee and the Jilin Provincial People's Government, to express gratitude to all the guests, especially the friends from the press, for your long-term support to the Expo and their wholehearted publicity and reporting.

Next, I will give a brief introduction to some of the work and preparations carried out by the organizing committee.

In last September, General Secretary Xi Jinping inspected Northeast China and presided over the symposium on further revitalizing Northeast China, pointing out the direction for the comprehensive and all-round revitalization of Northeast China in the new era and providing fundamental guidance. On June 6 this year, Premier Li Keqiang presided over the leaders’ group meeting on revitalizing Northeast China which further studied, implemented and promoted the high-quality revitalization and development of Northeast China. In order to further implement the instructions of the General Secretary and the Prime Minister, and further promote economic and trade cooperation in Northeast Asia, in accordance with the national deployment, Jilin Province, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade have carefully organized the 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo on the theme of “enhancing mutual trust and cooperation to create beautiful prospects for Northeast Asia”, which will be held on August 23-27 in Changchun this year. Compared with previous sessions, this Expo has four main characteristics:

First, the level is higher and the influence covers a wider scope. At that time, we will invite national leaders and leaders of the business and political community in Northeast Asia and other regions to give speeches, and also invite important guests from Czech and German to the Expo. At the same time, during the Expo, under the support of the leaders of the Ministry of Commerce, we will also hold the 19th Intergovernmental Consultative Committee Ministerial Meeting of the GTI and the first round of Northeast Asia regional cooperation roundtable in Changchun. In addition, to comply with the new situation of China's further opening up of the market and imports expansion, this year's Expo also set up the pavilion of import commodity.

Second, the technologies are more advanced and the guiding role of industry is stronger. This year's Expo focuses on the wave of a new round of scientific and technological revolutions and industrial transformation era, and newly establishes the Pavilion of 5G New Era, highlighting the leading 5G technology. Well-known domestic enterprises such as Huawei and ZTE will display the most advanced 5G equipment, terminals, chips and cloud-internet-end collaboration systems such as in-vehicle infotainment and car networking platforms jointly developed with China FAW. At the same time, it also strengthens the international cooperation in the 5G industry. The top 5 companies with 5G standard patents will gather at the Expo. Internationally renowned companies such as South Korea's LG and Japan’s Meleap will use VR, AR and other live interactive forms to display 5G technology’s application in areas like smart homes and robots and further build an international cooperation platform. The Expo also highlights the 5G ecosystem. China FAW, CRRC, and the Changchun Institute of Optics, Fine Mechanics and Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as well as well-known enterprises at home and abroad such as China Digital will vividly display the industrial ecology of 5G technology at industrial Internet, intelligent manufacturing, high-end sensors, and Internet of Things. With CCTV 5G+4K+8K HD transmission, smart medical of China Mobile and the First Bethune Hospital of Jilin University, China Telecom and Changguang satellite communications, and China Union Wisdom Olympics as representatives, the Expo will also demonstrate 5G application in future household appliance, communication, medical, culture and tourism.

Third, the interaction between the North and the South is more active and the cooperation is deeper. In accordance with the spirit of the instructions of General Secretary Xi Jinping at the symposium on further revitalizing Northeast China, based on the in-depth implementation of the national strategy of Northeast China revitalization and cooperation in the new era, this year's Expo has newly established the Pavilion of Northeast China Revitalization and Cooperation, highlighting interactivity. For the first time, the matching regions jointly establish exhibitions to display the results of the cooperation between products and markets, resources and capital, manufacturing and creation in the North and South, the important platform of serving the national strategy when promoting South-North interaction, the important carrier for expanding opening up and cooperation, and the important window for the comprehensive revitalization and all-round revitalization of Northeast China in the new era. At the same time, the pavilion also highlights the guiding role. It displays the innovative practices of the matching cooperation regions in scientific and technological achievements transformation, industrial matchmaking and complementation, cooperation platform co-construction, and the exchange of leaders and talents, and highlights the Northeast cases of interactive development in the North and South regions. At the same time, it also highlights specialty, and presents the characteristics of the North and South regions in an all-round way, striving to covering the North and the South in one pavilion.

Fourth, the level of opening up is higher and exchanges and cooperation are more practical. We will focus on promoting open international cooperation. During the Expo, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the [
]Trilateral Cooperation Secretariat and the Jilin Provincial People's Government will jointly host the first China-Japan Entrepreneur Summit with the theme of “Development Opportunities of SME in the 5G Era”. They have invited the Chinese, Japanese and Korean technology innovation companies and leading companies of some industries to promote the establishment of strategic cooperation mechanisms for China, Japan and Korea around the supply chains of intelligent connected vehicles, AR, VR innovation chain, medical equipment, advanced equipment and new materials. The Expo also sets up exhibition area of Deyuan Industrial Park projects. This is China's first world hidden industrial champion park built by China and Germany, displaying high-tech products and technology applications represented by European hidden champion enterprises. The 10th World Hidden Champion Summit will be held in Changchun next year, and this year's Expo is also a warm-up. During the Expo, we will also host a series of activities of the "Czech Day" with the Czech Embassy in China, the Czech-Chinese Friendship Cooperation Association and the Jilin Provincial People's Government. Our Jilin Entrepreneurs Conference has been successfully held for three consecutive sessions. The fourth Conference was held simultaneous during the Expo. The theme of this year's Jilin Entrepreneurs Conference is “promoting the spirit of the Jilin entrepreneurs and taking on the responsibility of revitalizing Jilin”.

Distinguished guests, media friends, ladies and gentlemen, under the strong support of the relevant ministries and the active participation of the governments of Northeast Asia, we will take the opportunity of the 12th China-Northeast Asia Expo to further bring together the development consensus of cooperative supply, further consolidate the bridge of mutual trust and cooperation between Northeast Asian countries, and truly highlight the original aspiration and mission of “building a cooperation platform, creating a brand of investment attraction, displaying regional image and promoting common development”. Now it is only 30 days away from the 12th Northeast Asia Expo, and preparations in all aspects are basically finished. We sincerely invite political and business leaders, business representatives and media friends from all over the world to meet in Changchun, a vibrant city, to renew friendship, and to seek common development!

Thank you!

[Gao Feng]: Thanks for Mr. Zhu Tianshu’s speech. Next, we will come to the Q&A session. Please ask the questions regarding the theme of today’s press conference. As always, please notify us the name of your agency before asking the questions.

China News Agency: Minister Wang, you referred to the Central China Expo as an important platform for Central China to attract foreign investment. What concrete measures will be taken for this year’s Expo to attract foreign investment? Thank you.

Wang Shouwen: Attracting foreign investment is one of the main purposes of the CCE. And a big part of the preparation for this year’s expo is centered on attracting FDI. Here I’d like to give an overview.

First, we stepped up invitation to the major countries, regions, chambers, business associations, and important multinationals. The organizing committee has sent out over 4000 invitation letters and received the confirmation from over 2000 important guests, including over 100 senior executives from Fortune 500 companies and multinationals as of April 26th.

Second, we have created new ways to organize special sessions and events for FDI attraction. For example, we will continue to hold symposiums for foreign-invested enterprises, investment promotional events for six central provinces, business matchmaking events, and dialogue between governors and mayors of Central China and business leaders from multinationals. Some of these events have been held before, and we will enrich their agenda. Others have not, and will be innovation in organization this year. To attract FDI, we will also strengthen the special promotion events for the six central provinces. The organizing committee has made coordination for them to share the business partners, and have a better-planned schedule and agenda for the events, so that more FIEs to the Expo will be able to participate in as many special sessions as possible.

Third, the organizing committee will present information of the special sessions to the multinationals in the form of tables to see whether they are interested, help them understand the industries and regions that are interesting to them, and match them with the projects. The organizing committee will also provide customized services to match multinationals with the six central provinces, each of whom has its own projects. This is what we have done to step up the attraction of foreign investment and business matchmaking.

Jiangxi Daily: We know this year the host, Jiangxi province, is the only province in the hinterland that is adjacent to the Pearl River Delta, Yangtse River Delta and Southern Fujian Delta, and has established the goal to become a commanding height in two-way opening-up of the hinterland. Vice Governor Wu, would you please share with us the concrete measures of Jiangxi province to expand opening-up? Thank you.

Wu Zhongqiong: In recent years, Jiangxi has seriously implemented the important statements of General Secretary Xi Jinping on expanding opening-up. The provincial Party Committee and the government have incorporated opening-up and development into our working principles to build an open economy and a commanding height in two-way opening-up of the hinterland. We have taken the following measrues:

First, we have focused on investment and trade facilitation. Last year, the provincial Party Committee and government had careful studies and decided to introduce 30 policies to further open up and pursue high-quality development. These targeted and operable measures have effectively enhanced investment and trade facilitation in the province and been applauded by the business community.

Second, we have actively engaged in the Belt and Road Development and enhanced trade and economic cooperation with BRI partner countries by tapping into their markets and conduct international production capacity cooperation. In 2018, the first overseas economic cooperation zone of Jiangxi—the multifunctional economic zone in Zambia broke ground. A number of projects for international production cooperation, such as the solar panel projects invested by Jinko Solar in Malaysia, the project of Han Teng Auto in Pakistan, and the solar power project of Jiangxi Construction Engineering Group in Bangladesh are advancing rapidly.
Third, we are working to build national-level pilot zone for two-way opening-up in Central China. Upon careful studies, the provincial government and Party committee have established the goal to get on par with coastal cities in three things: same FOB and CIF rate and same efficiency in customs clearance. Building on this, we will strive to marry the resources and low cost of factors of hinterland with the best practices of opening-up in coast development zones, and explore new paths for two-way opening-up and a new landscape for opening-up on all fronts. In 2018, 202 China Railway Express were opened between Jiangxi and Europe, 7.7 times the number in 2017. In the first quarter of this year, 96 CR Express were opened, and the number is expected to be over 300 for the year. It is fair to say that the new advantages in two-way opening-up of the hinterland are taking shape.

Fourth, we will hold special events to attract FDI more effectively. We will invite migrants, graduates, and comrade in arms to return to their hometowns, schools, and stations, in order to attract natives businessmen and talents of Jiangxi to contribute to its development. We will also encourage SOEs, private business and FIEs to operate in Jiangxi. This year, apart from the 11th Central China Expo and the 2nd World Jiangxi Entrepreneurs Convention, we will also organize trade and economic cooperation and exchanges in Shenzhen, Hong Kong, and Macau, as well as conferences for well-known private companies to come to Jiangxi and contribute to its high-quality development. We will also have hold exchanges with multinationals in Shanghai.

Fifth, we aim to build a government with loyalty, innovation, sense of responsibility, sound service, and strong capability. We will develop business environment featuring best policies, lowest cost, best services, and fastest procedures. To deepen reforms of streamlining administration, improving regulation and upgrading services, and carry out special campaigns to cut cost and enhance business environment, we have published over 130 substantive policy measures with real weight, easing burdens of 150 billion yuan in total for the businesses.

Going forward, we will take solid steps to implement the policy of the State Council to lower VAT rate and social insurance contribution borne by enterprises. We will also improve style of work and provide “waiter-like” or “babysitter-style” services to business and projects, so that entrepreneurs can rest assured and grow their business comfortably in Jiangxi.

CCTV：Minister Wang, what are the measures will MOFCOM take to further open up the market to attract more foreign investment in such a complex and changing international environment?

Wang Shouwen：Just now we have mentioned that President Xi announced a number of major reform and opening up measures at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation. Instructed by the CPC Central Committee and the State Council, MOFCOM will step up efforts to implement these measures, promote steady growth of foreign investment, and push for high quality economic development with high level opening up measures. To be specific, MOFOCM is working with relevant departments to further shorten the negative list and expand the access of foreign investment. President Xi specifically mentioned the need to open up modern services, manufacturing and agricultural sectors across the board. We are cooperating with relevant departments to work out concrete measures to cut the negative list. The new negative list for foreign investment will be published in the first half of this year.

Second, MOFOCM and relevant departments are taking measures to improve the environment for foreign investors. Here I’d like to draw your attention to the important work we have done. The Foreign Investment Law has been adopted by the National People’s Congress and will be implemented from January 1, 2020. We are formulating supporting regulations to implement the concrete principles and requirements put forward in the Foreign Investment Law and put in place relevant enforceable rules, thus creating a stable, transparent, predicable and fair competition environment. For instance, we need to ensure that lawful rights and interests of foreign IPR holders are protected, forced technology transfer is banned and the protection of trade secrets is improved. We will further leverage the role of the complaint mechanism of foreign invested companies to ensure that their complaints are handled in a timely manner.

Third, efforts will be strengthened to promote foreign investment. MOFCOM, NDRC and relevant departments are formulating the Catalogue of Industries Encouraging Foreign Investment to identify industries for prior foreign investment in central, western parts of China and nationwide. In doing so, some large projects could be substantiated at an early date.

Fourth, as proposed by President Xi at the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation, a batch of new free trade zones will be laid out, and China will make continued explorations based on differentiated conditions and step up stress tests. We are working on specific plans with relevant departments to move faster with implementation. We will be quick to put forward policies and institutions for building a free trade port in Hainan in a step-by-step and phased manner, so as to speed up exploration of the development of free trade ports. We will also make continued efforts to promote innovation of development zones at national level, foster industrial clusters and create new advantages in attracting foreign investment.

Fifth, we will continue to actively engage in multilateral and bilateral trade negotiations. You may have noted that yesterday China signed the Protocol of the Second Phase of Negotiation of China-Pakistan Free Trade Agreement. Trade liberalization between the two countries has increased by 40 percentage points from 35% to 75% compared to the first phase. In addition, we still need to step up our efforts to press ahead with RCEP negotiations. The 27th round of RCEP negotiations will be held in this July in China and the ministerial negotiation in early August, through which substantive progress will be made. Early this year, China and more than 70 WTO members made a joint statement with a view to pushing for negotiations in e-commerce. All these negotiations, be it multilateral, bilateral and regional, have demonstrated China’s concrete opening up measures and its commitment to opening up. Thank you.

Jiangxi TV：The theme of this year’s Central China Investment and Trade Exposition (Central China Expo) is high level opening up and high quality development. Foreign investment is a vital driver for both high level opening up and high quality development. My question is for Director General Liu from the Department of Commerce of Jiangxi Province. What are the specific and commendable measures Jiangxi has adopted to attract foreign investment?

Liu Cuilan：I would like to thank our friends from the press for their continuous attention to and coverage of Jiangxi’s work in attracting foreign investment. Jiangxi has incorporated promoting opening up in our provincial working guidelines. Just now, deputy governor Wu briefed you on a number of measures Jiangxi has taken to enhance opening up from a macro perspective. We take attracting foreign investment and businesses as a key approach to enhance opening up, based on which a series of measures have been adopted. These measures could be summarized into “five threes”.

First, we are making vigorous efforts to implement the “three hundred” project. Surrounding Jiangxi’s six pillar industries, namely aviation, electronic information, equipment manufacturing, traditional Chinese medicine, new energy, new materials, we have carefully devised 100 major projects for worldwide investment attraction. Based on these six industries, we have also selected 100 key companies across the world for business networking. Meanwhile, we are tracking the whole process of these 100 projects that have been initiated or under discussion.

Second, we will keep inviting migrants, students and comrade in arms to return to their hometowns, schools and bases in Jiangxi, as Vice Governor Zhongqiong just now mentioned. There are 3 million Jiangxi businessmen and talents and over 200000 influential Jiangxi businesses around the world. We utilize their bonds to hometowns to attract them to invest in Jiangxi. That’s why the Second World Jiangxi Business Leaders Conference will be held during the Central China Expo this year.

Third, we actively encourage private companies, state-owned companies and foreign companies to settle in Jiangxi. On attracting private businesses, we mainly focus on top 500 Chinese private companies. The conference themed on nationally well-known companies settling in Jiangxi to fuel Jiangxi’s high quality development will be held in December. A launching ceremony of the conference was already held on March 2 in Beijing, which attracted business leaders of more than 300 renowned private companies nationwide, thus marking a starting point of private business attraction for the whole year. On state-owned business attraction, we encourage both Jiangxi’s SOEs and private companies to network with central SOEs and SOEs of other regions for restructuring through merger and acquisition, so as to attract more SOEs to invest in Jiangxi. On attracting foreign businesses, Central China Expo is a case in point. Some of our colleagues have mentioned that attracting foreign businesses has always been one of our priorities. By “introducing in” and “going out”, we are engaging with foreign invested companies and foreign companies.

Fourth, we focus on building “three platforms”. One is the platform for specific events, such as the Central China Expo, the World Jiangxi Business Leaders Conference, the World Conference on VR Industry in June, and the Conference on Private Businesses at the end of this year. There’re also events to encourage our businesses to reach out to other regions: the exchange events between Jiangxi and Hong Kong, Jiangxi and Shenzhen businesses in June and the B2B conference with multinational companies headquartered in Shanghai in July. Apart from organizing events, deputy governor Wu also leads delegations to visit companies for one-on-one in-depth discussions and project matchmaking so as to answer businesses’ questions and solve their problems. We also build platforms to accommodate investment. Jiangxi is home to 19 national development zones, 81 provincial development zones, which all serve as our platforms to accommodate foreign investment and businesses. This year, the provincial government proposed that national development zones should introduce at least one project with over 5 billion yuan investment every year, and provincial development zones over 2 billion yuan investment. A regulation on development zones of Jiangxi will be put in place soon to empower development zones to better accommodate projects. Finally, we build a number of information platforms. We work with the third parties, namely well-known chambers of commerce, business associations, professional business and investment attraction agencies, which provide us with business attraction information to make our work more targeted and effective.

Fifth, we work vigorously to increase the “three rates” of major projects. By creating an enabling business environment to promote the implementation of business attraction projects, capital injection rate, initiation rate, operation rate would be enhanced. Among the major projects signed last year, over 90% received capital, over 80% were already initiated and over 50% were put into operation. We have built many standard plants where production can start immediately after contracts are signed and equipment is put in place. That’s why many projects are signed, initiated and put into production in the same year. These measures help Jiangxi achieve a good performance in attracting foreign investment. Vice Minister Wang just introduced that foreign investment introduced into Jiangxi grew by 38% in the first quarter. As we press ahead with these measures, Jiangxi will make further strides in the future. We welcome our friends from the media to give your attention to Jiangxi’s work in foreign investment and business attraction. Thank you.

National Business Daily: MOFCOM has done a lot of work to help central China expand opening up. As one of the organizers of Expo Central China, what work has CIPA done to mobilize resources and better leverage the role of Expo Central China as a platform for investment promotion? Thank you.

Liu Dianxun: The rise of central China is a major economic strategy for economic development in central China adopted by the government of China. It is fair to say that, in recent years, economic development in central China has built up a sound momentum. Like what Vice-Minister Wang has mentioned, the growth in FDI attracted by central China is higher than the national average growth.

In addition, according to the briefing of Vice-Minister Wang and Vice-Governor Wu, the six provinces in central China have also made notable progress in improving their business environment. The sound economic development of the six provinces in central China provided a strong boost for the balanced development of China in general.

CIPA is committed to promoting China’s two-way investment. In the past years, CIPA has focused on its professional development and shaped the basic thinking of industries as the mainstay, demand orientation and services for localities and companies. For this Expo Central China, CIPA has drawn on the experience of the past years on investment promotion as a reference for its preparation. The 12 sponsors of the Expo Central China, including MOFCOM and the province of Jiangxi, have done a lot of work to prepare for this Expo Central China. The preparatory work of CIPA is mainly focused on the following four areas:

First, as other spokespersons have mentioned, this Expo Central China consists of five major activities and 26 thematic ones. The five major activities could give updates on the 11th Expo Central China about economic growth, industrial advantages, attraction of FDI, going global and trade. In addition, the 26 thematic activities are more diverse, including the activities held by the six provinces in central China and some industry-based activities, such as finance, which is closely related to industrial development in the six provinces in central China, and electronic information, intelligent manufacturing, culture and tourism. These 26 thematic activities are worth paying attention.

Centered on the international, specialized and brand-based themes, we are strengthening the features of Expo Central China in these areas. For example, we will host a dialogue between the mayors of cities from the six provinces in central China and multinationals during this Expo Central China. Many multinationals will send high-level participants to this expo. To draw the multinationals closer to the local development of the six provinces in central China is one area that we are working on. In addition, we have selected many quality projects from the pool of major projects that CIPA has built over the years to be released during the Expo Central China. Such projects will also help the exchange and development of companies, industries and localities participating in the Expo Central China. Apart from exchanges with some developed countries, like what CIPA did in the past, we are also trying to make the Expo Central China more international. For example, we have facilitated the 8th Investment Forum of the Alianza del Pacífico hosted by the four countries of Peru, Chile, Mexico and Columbia and the Thailand Investment Promotion Conference hosted by the Thailand Board of Investment, keeping expanding the international horizon of the Expo Central China.

Second, this exhibition is joined by more than 740 foreign companies and institutions from 29 countries. According to the requirements of the Party Leadership Group of MOFCOM, CIPA is arranging the central exhibition area, where both the competitive industries and their products are displayed. In this way, the exhibitors will not only grasp the basics of economic and industrial development in the six provinces in central China in the central exhibition area, but also take a look at the material objects and get some firsthand experience of economic and industrial development in the six provinces. We have invited about nine companies from the poor counties to the exhibition, which is a part of poverty alleviation by commerce.

Third, in the expanded publicity campaign at the early stages, CIPA worked with the organizing committee to send business invitation to 48 countries and regions, UNIDO Office, Hong Kong and Macao, covering the five continents of the world, Hong Kong and Macao.

Fourth, we take the news feed during the preparation of this expo seriously. We offer timely updates on the expo to the media and the public via the official website and Wechat official account of this Expo Central China, so that the exhibitors, merchants and agencies all over the world who hope to know more about and participate in the Expo Central China can get the latest information in a timely manner. That is all for my reply, thank you.

Gao Feng: I can see that you have many questions. However, due to the time limit, the last question, please.

South China Morning Post: What are the challenges faced by central China in attracting FDI? Thank you.

Wang Shouwen: Thank you for your question. It is fair to say that central China is faced with some challenges in attracting FDI. For example, some foreign companies in China are export-oriented and the products they manufacture or process in China are mainly for export. For such foreign companies, if they choose to invest in central China, relatively high transport and logistical costs may be incurred when they import raw material and export products. There are some other challenges. China’s economy is developing fast now, with its labor costs increasing on relative terms. Compared with some developing countries, the advantages of labor costs are not very clear. However, what I want to say is that, compared to such challenges, foreign investment in central China has more advantages, which will offset the bad effects brought by the challenges.

First, as what I have mentioned, some foreign investments are for export, but more foreign investments aim to satisfy the demand of the Chinese market. If they aim to satisfy the Chinese market, then foreign investors will enjoy transport and logistical convenience when investing in central China. Their logistical costs will be greatly reduced, thus turning the drawback into an advantage. The six provinces in central China have nearly 370 million populations. They are closely connected to western and eastern regions, forming a large market of 1.4 billion populations. If foreign investors aim to satisfy this large market, their investment in central China will enjoy transport and logistical advantages.

Second, advantages of the industrial chain. Central China has a complete range of support for the industrial chain. Compared with the eastern region, it also has the advantage of costs for labor, land and other elements. Compared with other developing countries, central China is still quite attractive, even for export-oriented foreign investment.

Third, as for export-oriented foreign-invested companies, China has adopted a series of policies on tax cuts and fee reductions to reduce logistical costs for companies. For example, the State Council adopted a measure this year, reducing the VAT rate of logistics and transportation by one percentage point. In the past, it was not realistic for a place like Jiangxi to export to Europe through railway, but many China-Europe block trains have already been launched and their numbers are growing. Compared to coastal areas, Central China enjoys the time advantage when exporting to Europe via China-Europe block trains and the costs are also reduced.

I have also mentioned that we are formulating some incentive policies to attract FDI to central and western regions. Such policies will also be an advantage for foreign businesses to invest in central and western regions.

It is exactly because of the advantages enjoyed by investment in central China, which I have mentioned, the growth of foreign investment in central China is higher than the national level. The foreign investment attracted by central China grew by 15% last year and 22% in 2017, both far quicker than the national growth. Just now I have briefed you on the attraction of foreign investment to central China in the first quarter, also higher than the national level. The FDI in Jiangxi grew by 38% in the first quarter. My suggestion to foreign investors is, do not consider investment in central China a challenge, there are in fact more opportunities than challenges. Thank you.

Gao Feng: Due to time limits, today’s press conference is concluded. If you have other questions, we can find some time for further exchanges. Thank you for your participation. Thanks also go to the four spokespersons. Thank you.