In the first quarter of this year, the actual utilization of foreign capital in the province achieved a “good start” in the first quarter. According to the data, from January to March, the actual utilization of foreign capital in the province was US $3.22 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.7%, an increase of 40.1% over the same period in 2020, and an average increase of 18.4% over the two years. Among them, foreign direct investment was 3.21 billion US dollars, an increase of 22.4%.
Attracting foreign investment is an important window to observe the vitality and potential of a local economy.
Since the beginning of this year, the whole province has conscientiously implemented the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee, the State Council, the provincial Party committee and the provincial government, actively responded to the severe challenges of China’s complex and changeable external environment, issued effective policies and measures, launched considerate and warm-hearted services, innovated and promoted accurate business recruitment means, and continuously enhanced the confidence of foreign investors in long-term investment and operation in Hebei.
Strengthen the magnetic force of attracting investment, and large and good projects are pouring in
On April 28, at the construction site of Hegang POSCO automobile board joint venture project in leting Economic Development Zone, Tangshan, workers were busy with pile foundation construction.
The project is jointly constructed by Hegang group and POSCO (South Korea POSCO) with a total investment of 4.125 billion yuan. It is the largest foreign-funded joint venture project in China’s iron and steel industry in recent years. The project will build two world leading high-end automobile steel sector production lines, and include the equity of an existing automobile steel sector production line in Guangdong. The new project officially broke ground on January 7 this year. In February this year, the project completed the first introduction of foreign capital in the form of cash, about 326 million yuan.
According to the person in charge of the project, the two sides have selected expert backbones with rich experience in R & D and production of high-end automobile panels, and established a multinational management team with integration and complementarity, including 8 technical experts and senior managers from POSCO. “The Chinese and South Korean teams will give further play to the unique advantages of Hegang and POSCO, jointly build a highland of high-end automotive panel technology, products and innovation in the world, and actively lead the low-carbon and green development of the steel and automotive industry.”
Large projects are advancing steadily, and good news is coming from good projects.
Recently, the phase I biological antibody project of Shijiazhuang Jushi Biotechnology Industrial Park was successfully completed and will be officially put into operation. The industrial park is invested and constructed by Jushi biopharmaceutical Co., Ltd. a recent overseas investment has accelerated the construction of the industrial park again.
As a powerful carrier for front-end R & D to large-scale production, the industrial park is built in accordance with the FDA standard, carries out in-depth cooperation with the world’s leading biomedical R & D institutions, and introduces international high-end biomedical R & D talents to build an advanced biomedical manufacturing system.
“Hebei’s rich biomedical industry foundation and complete industry university research chain are the prerequisites for attracting our investment.” The relevant person in charge of Jushi biology said, “in the future, we will continue to expand the introduction of foreign capital and promote the efficient transformation and industrialization of biomedical innovation achievements in Shijiazhuang and even Hebei Province.”
Investment usually considers medium and long-term factors. Whether it is a new layout or continuous capital increase, the trend of foreign investment reveals their firm confidence in the long-term fundamentals of Hebei and the national economy. Large domestic demand market, complete industrial chain and good soft environment have become a “strong magnetic field” to attract foreign investment.
The growth rate is stable, the structure is excellent and the quality is high. In the first quarter, the utilization of foreign capital in our province increased both in quantity and quality and made progress in stability.
The regional distribution of foreign capital utilization is more balanced. In the first quarter, the actual utilization of foreign capital in all cities and xiong’an new area of the province increased, of which 7 cities and xiong’an new area increased faster than that of the whole province. From the regional distribution of counties and development zones, there are three counties (cities and districts) and five development zones that have actually utilized more than US $100 million of foreign capital.
The structure of foreign capital continued to be optimized. From the perspective of foreign investment in place, the province’s foreign direct investment is mainly in manufacturing, and the service industry is growing rapidly. From January to March, the province’s foreign direct investment in manufacturing reached US $1.94 billion, an increase of 4.7%, accounting for 60.5% of the province. From the perspective of contractual foreign investment, the newly established enterprises are mainly in the service industry, and the contractual foreign investment in the manufacturing industry has increased rapidly. From January to March, 51 foreign-invested enterprises in the service industry were newly established in the province, accounting for 69.9% of the province.
The circle of friends attracting investment is growing. In terms of foreign investment in place, foreign direct investment from Asia and Latin America maintained a double-digit growth of more than 23% and 90.6% respectively. The countries (regions) with the highest foreign direct investment mainly include Hong Kong, Singapore, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, accounting for 70.4% of the whole province. Foreign direct investment from countries along the “the Belt and Road” reached US $220million, an increase of 4.7%, accounting for 6.7% of the province.
Optimize the investment environment and let foreign-funded enterprises take root and develop well
“Although there was an epidemic in Langfang, our data center service was not interrupted for a moment.” Said Li Zheng, head of Langfang Shucheng Data Technology Co., Ltd. Located in anci District, Langfang City, the company is a technology enterprise invested by Wanguo data and providing data processing services for major Internet enterprises and cloud service manufacturers.
During the implementation of closed management in anci District, some employees were closed to the plant. According to the list of guarantee and supply points provided by the commercial department, the enterprise shall timely provide employees with sufficient living materials and disinfection and sterilization supplies to ensure the safe and orderly operation of the enterprise.
Li Zheng said that since the settlement of Wanguo data in Langfang in 2019, all departments have implemented one-time notification, one-time agency and other systems. The business department has visited enterprises regularly to coordinate and solve the actual problems of enterprises, which has made them feel “reassured”. At present, other data center projects of Wanguo data in Langfang are also under accelerated construction.
Optimizing the business environment is an important fulcrum to promote high-quality development. A good business environment is not only competitiveness, attraction, but also productivity.
Since the beginning of this year, the epidemic has spread in many places in China, and the industrial chain, supply chain and personnel flow of many enterprises have been blocked, which has affected the daily production of enterprises and the construction of new projects. Relevant departments of our province carry out “one enterprise, one policy” to help and ensure the orderly operation of enterprises and projects.
As a key project in Hebei Province, the joint venture project of Hegang POSCO automobile board has tight construction period and heavy tasks. In order to ensure that the project will not stop work during the epidemic period to the greatest extent, relevant local departments will issue vehicle passes for key materials for enterprises in time, alleviate the transportation difficulties of construction equipment and materials, and try their best to reduce the impact of the epidemic on project construction.
In extraordinary times, we need to have extraordinary strategies. Under the epidemic, aiming at the “urgent need” and “hope of the heart” of foreign-funded enterprises, our province issued more targeted relief policies to timely and effectively solve the key problems faced by enterprises, providing a strong guarantee for the “stability” of introducing foreign capital in Hebei in the first quarter.
We will implement a series of policies to stabilize foreign investment and give foreign investors full confidence——
We will fully implement various national and provincial policies to stabilize foreign investment, earnestly implement the new negative list of foreign investment access in the national and pilot free trade zones, implement foreign investment incentive policies, factor guarantee policies and investment protection policies, and attract more multinational companies to invest in Hebei.
Multi channel and wide field precise investment promotion, so that foreign businessmen are willing to come——
On February 17, a series of Hebei cloud investment promotion activities in 2022 were launched. At the first promotion meeting, the Provincial Department of Commerce participated online in the investment promotion agents and merchants in Europe, Japan, South Korea and other countries or regions. This year, the Provincial Department of Commerce will implement the action of “investment promotion year for foreign funded projects”, focusing on key cooperation projects in pilot free trade zones, comprehensive insurance zones and key parks. It plans to guide and carry out more than 100 cloud Investment Series matchmaking meetings throughout the year, and strive to achieve more results of cooperation projects.
We will strengthen service security so that foreign businessmen can stay——
Deepen the provincial, municipal and county three-level package assistance mechanism, provide nanny services for enterprises through the establishment of assistance account, enterprise visit and discussion and exchange, and promote the solution of problems of foreign-funded enterprises in financing, land use, environmental protection and personnel entry.
Adhering to the principle of making progress while maintaining stability, strengthening forward-looking prediction and implementing accurate policies, our province has made rapid and steady progress in the utilization of foreign capital. Zhang Jifang, deputy director of the Provincial Department of Commerce, said that next, our province will continue to fully implement the catalogue of industries encouraging foreign investment and guide more foreign investment in advanced manufacturing, strategic emerging industries and modern service industries. Do a good job in Wuxi Online Offline Communication Information Technology Co.Ltd(300959) investment promotion activities, do a good job in Langfang Economic and Trade Fair at a high level, and accurately attract high-quality foreign-funded projects. In the field of project construction, formulate the project promotion work plan, and strive to realize a number of new projects, a number of continued projects and a number of projects completed and put into operation.
