Longstanding investment fair echoes eastern Chinese province Zhejiang's opening-up ambition

HANGZHOU,China,May 29,2023 -- In China's eastern coastal province of Zhejiang,the port stands witness to theboom of trade,while the pulse of investment could be taken on an annualsymposium.

Signing contracts of major foreign investment projects and the launch of a fund focusing on investment in Zhejiang were held during the Forum on Investing in Zhejiang.

The five-day 24th China Zhejiang Investment & Trade Symposium (ZJITS) kickedoff on May 16 in Ningbo,a coastal city in Zhejiang. In addition,the 3rdChina-CEEC Expo & International Consumer Goods Fair was held at the same time,according to the Department of Commerce of Zhejiang Province.

The event's active registration,rich activities and robust exchanges havewitnessed the enthusiasm and expectation of global investors for Zhejiang,anopen highland in China.

From an investment & trade event to high-level opening-up platform

The ZJITS has witnessed the magnificent course of the province's open economydevelopment and is an important window for the world to observe the trends ofZhejiang's investment and trade.

The ZJITS started in 1999,the first International Consumer Goods Fair was heldin 2002,and the first China-CEEC Expo was held in 2019,which is the onlynational-level institutional exhibition facing CEEC. Gradually the three eventsformed a grand opening-up exchange platform,creating the most importantcarrier for Zhejiang to deepen foreign trade and economic cooperation on allfronts.

As an important platform for Zhejiang's foreign economic and trade exchanges,the ZJITS has been held for 24 sessions. Since the China-CEEC Expo was elevatedto a national-level institutional exhibition,the ZJITS has gained moreinfluence.

Even the COVID-19 pandemic had not dampened the enthusiasm for investment andtrade with Zhejiang at home and abroad. In 2020,the 22nd ZJITS was held onlinefor the first time,inking a total investment of 13.7 billion U.S. dollars. In2021,the 23rd ZJITS saw the signing of 80 projects with a total investment of15.1 billion U.S. dollars.

The 24th ZJITS not only has a main forum focusing on investment in Zhejiang,6matching exchanges and supporting activities,and over 100 investment promotionactivities jointly held by governments at all levels of the province,but alsointroduced new measures of opening up and promotion such as fund investment,pilot opening of service industry,introduced successful experience of foreignenterprises investing in Zhejiang,and carried out multi-party dialogues amonggovernment,enterprises and institutions to share new opportunities forinvestment and cooperation.

The main forum alone attracted more than 150 guests from over 30 countries andregions at home and abroad,including Fortune 500 enterprises,multinationalindustry leaders,international investment promotion agencies,intermediaryconsulting companies,well-known business associations and representatives ofsome other provinces and cities.

"The business environment in Zhejiang is very good. I have been deeplyimpressed by Zhejiang's service efficiency in both project implementation andactual operation,which makes us choose to continue to increase our localpresence," said attendee Julia Mateos Caro,general manager of Sanofi'sHangzhou plant.

From introduction of foreign investment to going global by local firms

The increasingly rich activities and growing platform of the ZJITS reflect thetransformation of Zhejiang Province from a foreign trade hub to an opening-uppowerhouse.

Opening-up has always been a major priority of Zhejiang's development. In July2003,Zhejiang promoted the implementation of the development strategy thatcalls for provincial authorities to make full use of the province's eight keyadvantages. The strategy has led the overall development of the whole provincesince then,and proposed to continuously improve the level of opening-up.

In the past ten years,the actual utilization of foreign capital in Zhejiangincreased from 8.33 billion U.S. dollars to 19.3 billion U.S. dollars,with anannual average growth of 8.8 percent,and the accumulative actual utilizationof foreign capital reached 141.97 billion U.S. dollars.

In January this year,Zhejiang proposed to accelerate the building of ahigh-level open province. It seeks to adhere to the organic unity of goingglobal and investment introduction,and promote the upgrading of industrialchain and supply chain system of leading industries,domestic and foreign tradecompetitiveness,important open platforms and enterprises.

The province aims to build a more resilient,dynamic and competitive "sweetpotato economy" that features open development going beyond a city,theprovince and even the country.

Like a sweet potato whose vines spread out in all directions to absorb morelight,rain,and nutrients,so that the tubers that support the roots can growbigger and bigger,Zhejiang has seen many local economies thrive via opendevelopment.

The province is home to the business-minded Wenzhou City,the overseas Chinesemerchants hometown Qingtian City,world supermarket of small commodities YiwuCity and global textile hub Keqiao District in Shaoxing City.

In 2022,a total of 934 going-global enterprises and institutions wereregistered and approved in Zhejiang,an increase of 16.5 percent over theprevious year. The registered foreign direct investment amounted to 13 billionU.S. dollars,up 45 percent year on year.

In Yuecheng District of Zhejiang's Shaoxing City,open development has becomethe consensus of local enterprises. Since the beginning of this year,Yuechenghas organized more than 560 enterprises to participate in 16 domestic andoverseas exhibitions such as the intertextile in Shanghai and Hong Kong FashionWeek,and obtained intended orders with value exceeding 250 million U.S.dollars.

Meanwhile,more and more local enterprises are making high-quality globalinvestment around the industrial chain. Sleemon,a Yuecheng-based firmproducing high-quality furniture such as mattresses,is stepping up itsgoing-global efforts. In addition to continuing investment in Safin manufacturing base in Thailand,it has also opened an overseas design center. Currently,the company's European design center is in operation in Milan.

From commodity and factor flow to institutional opening-up

In addition to going global and introducing investment led by cities andenterprises,Zhejiang is also keen on integrating into the country's overallopening-up blueprint,embracing a new round of high-level opening-up withinstitutional reform and innovation.

A number of trade and investment liberalization and facilitation pilot zoneshave sprung up in various parts of Zhejiang.

For example,Ningbo is China's first demonstration zone for economic and tradecooperation between China and CEEC. Hangzhou is a national comprehensive pilotfor expanding the opening-up of the service sector. Wenzhou Ouhai District has been listed as a national innovation demonstration zone for promoting import. Six cities,including Jiaxing,have been designated as demonstration zones forhigh-level opening-up and cooperation with RCEP countries.

China (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone,as the main driver of promoting theprovince's institutional opening-up,took the lead in expanding the pilot areain China,with 477 institutional innovation achievements made since itsestablishment in 2017. Among them,149 pioneering achievements have beenpracticed across Zhejiang,and 37 innovative cases have been promoted acrossthe country,facilitating the continuous optimization of the opening-upbusiness environment in Zhejiang and beyond.

In order to promote Zhejiang's opening-up via digital economy,the Forum onChina (Zhejiang) Pilot Free Trade Zone DEPA and International Commodity SupplyChain (Beilun) was held.

The event also saw the launch of the upgrading action for China (Zhejiang)Pilot Free Trade Zone,the launch of the green trade initiative,the launch ofDEPA benchmarking action,and the establishment of the enterprise innovationalliance,which together seek to explore more possibilities for the pilot FTZto link with the world by leveraging digital economy.

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Caption: Signing contracts of major foreign investment projects and the launch of a fundfocusing on investment in Zhejiang were held during the Forum on Investing inZhejiang.