On June 16, 192 multinational company presidents and more than 400 business representatives from around the world gathered in Qingdao to witness the opening of the 7th Qingdao Summit of Multinational Corporation Leaders.
Among them, 77% are ‘old friends’, but there are also 98 ‘new partners’ attending the conference for the first time, accounting for 23%.
Among the ‘old friends’ who attended the conference, many have changed from ‘attending’ to ‘investing in China’.
China is becoming one of the global ‘sources of innovation’.
Laying out the Chinese market has long become a must for multinational companies.
As Vice President Han Zheng said in his speech at the opening ceremony, China continues to promote high-quality development and expands high-level opening up to the outside world, becoming a stabilizer and source of power for world economic growth, and also providing a broad stage for the development of multinational companies.
China unswervingly supports multinational companies to invest and develop in China, flourish and develop healthily, and jointly create a bright future of win-win cooperation.
From ‘Exhibitor’ to ‘Investor’
Han Zheng said that China has always been the builder of an open world economy, a promoter of global common development, and a supporter of mutually beneficial cooperation among enterprises from all over the world.
China is willing to work hand in hand with global multinational companies to move forward in a new direction. It hopes that multinational companies will continue to invest in China, deepen their cultivation in China, and achieve new and greater development in the fertile soil of China.
In fact, currently, more and more multinational companies are turning from “attending conferences” to “investing in China”, and Baker Hughes is one of them.
‘As a Fortune 500 company that has been deeply involved in the energy industry for more than a hundred years, we have been involved in the development of China’s energy and industry for half a century.
At the same time, we have also personally experienced the transformation of ‘exhibitors into investors’.
Currently, we are upgrading ‘exhibition’ to ‘in-depth participation’ to achieve closer integration and common growth with the Chinese market.
As of last year, Baker Hughes has successively established 7 factories and 5 R&D and service bases in China.
’ said Cao Yang, global vice president and president of Baker Hughes China.
Just this month, Baker Hughes established new foreign-owned corporate entities in Shanghai and Changzhou.
In addition, focusing on the development needs of energy and industry, it actively promotes investment in manufacturing and service facilities to better serve the Chinese market.
‘Looking to the future, we firmly believe that the opportunities of ‘sharing China’s large market’ will continue to be unleashed, and the trend of ‘exhibitors turning into investors’ will continue to deepen.
Baker Hughes will also continue to take root in China, serve China, and work with partners to face the world and achieve a higher level of mutual benefit and win-win results.
’ Cao Yang said.
Data show that from January to April this year, 20,113 new foreign-invested enterprises were established across the country, a year-on-year increase of 6.8%.
‘Since China joined the World Trade Organization in 2001, Sino-foreign cooperation between enterprises is nothing new.
At first, foreign-funded enterprises were attracted by the Chinese market. Foreign-funded enterprises introduced technology to China through various forms, including establishing joint ventures, or wholly foreign-owned enterprises holding technology ownership independently. In response, China gave birth to a number of leading global export companies, and gradually developed into the powerful manufacturing country it is today.
But now, a new development trend is emerging. China is no longer just a huge consumer market, nor is it just a global manufacturing base.
Today’s China focuses on innovation, efficiency and cost advantages. Chinese companies rely on the domestic market to develop new products and services, quickly achieve large-scale implementation, and continue to improve their competitiveness.
’ Dai Pu, co-president of Roland Berger’s Global Management Committee, said.
Currently, global technology and industrial changes are undergoing a profound reshaping.
Artificial intelligence has become a new industrial revolution just like electricity back then.
‘Nowadays, some multinational companies have also begun to learn from China’s leading companies and learn from the excellent practices of Chinese companies in using virtualization technology to quickly complete product design and flexibly carry out engineering research and development.
This type of efficient model is not common among mature companies in Europe and the United States.
Therefore, today’s China is not only home to a huge market and complete supply chain, but also a benchmark and model for global enterprises to learn from and learn from.
’ Dai Pu said.
Cooperation is getting closer and closer
China’s door to opening up is opening wider and wider, and foreign-funded enterprises and local governments are also cooperating more and more closely.
‘In China, we are deepening collaborative innovation with local industrial ecology and working together to create an industrial AI innovation system with sustainable impact. At the same time, we are working with more than 60 Chinese AI partners to accelerate the implementation of joint solutions.
Siemens has always regarded China as a global core market and innovation highland. In the future, we will continue to deepen cooperation with Yantai in zero-carbon parks, high-end manufacturing green energy, etc., and work together to overcome technical difficulties, innovate application scenarios, and cultivate industrial ecology.
’ said Zhan Jingtao, Vice President of Siemens (China) Co., Ltd.
Chen Xudong, chairman and general manager of IBM Greater China, also said that in Shandong Province, IBM has created a digital transformation model of industrial scenarios plus computing power base and vertical large models to accelerate the integration of AI and economic entities.
Not only that, it is understood that this summit has concentrated on 40 contracted projects, covering the four major fields of foreign investment, foreign trade, foreign economy, and modern service industry, covering 16 cities in the province, forming a new open cooperation pattern of improving the quality of foreign investment, cultivating foreign trade, expanding foreign economic markets, and upgrading the service industry, and accurately serving the goals and tasks of the province’s open development and industrial upgrading.
Among them, there are 15 foreign-invested projects with a total investment of US$1.42 billion.
It has 8 foreign trade projects with a total import and export volume of US$1.26 billion, focusing on high value-added products such as high-end food, photovoltaic equipment, electronic packaging, fine chemicals, and high-performance tires. Its trading partners include economies such as Russia, Kazakhstan, Mexico, and Hong Kong.
In fact, China continues to optimize its foreign investment support system and enhance corporate confidence.
For example, the Ministry of Commerce has solidly promoted the implementation of the new catalog of industries that encourage foreign investment, and guided more foreign investment into advanced manufacturing, modern service industries, high-tech, energy conservation and environmental protection and other fields.
Encourage foreign investors to reinvest their profits in China to support the long-term development of multinational companies in China.
‘The Ministry of Commerce implements the policy of utilizing foreign capital, solidly promotes high-level opening up to the outside world, polishes investment in Chinese brands, strives to build a broad platform for various market entities including multinational companies, create a better environment, actively expand independent opening up, and create opportunities for corporate cooperation.
’ said Yan Dong, Vice Minister of Commerce.
