From Chongqing Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment
The recently-released Chongqing Foreign Investment Environment Evaluation Report 2018 shows that, against the backdrop of global economic slowdown and the prevalence of protectionism and unilateralism, 59% of respondents were optimistic or slightly optimistic towards their development prospect in China within next two years, and 32% of respondents had neutral expectation. China's economy slows down but remains robust.
The downtown of Chongqing, China (Photo by Yuan Tieli)
As the Chinese government continuously expands China’s opening-up level and announces various preferential policies to promote the growth of foreign investment, reducing tariffs and restrictions on foreign investment access, reforming domestic taxes and levies, and reducing the burden on enterprises, thus the foreign investors and foreign-funded enterprises are still confident and optimistic to their future development in China.
In conclusion, firstly, the overall score of the environment is relatively high; secondly, 31% of respondents indicated that their turnover in 2018 increased or increased greatly; thirdly, 61% of respondents indicated that they had the intention to expand the enterprise's scale, invest in new projects, and conduct mergers and acquisitions in China.
About Evaluation Analysis of Chongqing Foreign Investment Environment
For the preparation of 2018 Evaluation Report, 825 survey questionnaires were completed and collected back (including fundamental and specific questionnaires) by Chongqing Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment. The successful collecting rate increased by 13% compared with last year (i.e., 729 completed questionnaires were collected back for 2017 Evaluation Report).
It is shown from the completed 825 questionnaires that the 825 foreign-invested enterprises are engaging in various industries and sectors. Therefore, the result of the survey could be regarded as universal and typical. This fundamental questionnaire mainly covers the following five aspects: fundamental environment, market, policies and government services, living environment as well as corporate development.
Overview
In order to ensure the objectivity and authenticity of the survey results, the following activities were conducted during the survey:
►Conduct the questionnaire survey on the foreign-invested enterprises in Chongqing (including members of CQAEFI), and analyze and summarize the data statistics of the questionnaire results.
►The survey questionnaire covers fundamental parts and specific parts:
- Fundamental questionnaire: to perform the continuous evaluation on the foreign investment environment in Chongqing from 5 areas;
- Specific questionnaire: to perform the evaluation on hot spots in Chongqing.
►Interview the representative enterprises participating in the questionnaire survey by communicating with the management of the enterprises face to face.
This fundamental questionnaire mainly covers the following five aspects:
►Fundamental Environment
►Market
►Policies and Government Services
►Living Environment
►Corporate Development
When designing the questionnaire, a 10-score assessment standard was introduced (i.e., 10 score refers to Excellent, while 1 score refers to Very Poor). For easy understanding, 10 to 7 score represents “Satisfied”, 6 to 5 score represents “Medium”, and 4 to 1 score represents “Unsatisfied”.
For the preparation of 2018 Evaluation Report, 825 survey questionnaires were completed and collected back (including fundamental and specific questionnaires) by Chongqing Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment. The successful collecting rate increased 13% comparing with last year (i.e., 729 completed questionnaires were collected back for 2017 Evaluation Report). It is shown from the completed 825 questionnaires that the 825 foreign-invested enterprises are engaging in various industries and sectors. Therefore, the result of the survey could be regarded as universal and typical.
Based on the survey, it’s displayed that:
►the respondents’ registered capital ranged from tens of thousands of dollars to hundreds of millions of dollars;
►the respondents’ setup date starts from the early 1990s to 2018;
►the respondents’ registered address covered 33 of 38 administrative divisions in Chongqing;
►the respondents’ legal forms included the wholly foreign-owned enterprises, Sino-foreign joint ventures and etc.;
►the respondents’ engaging scopes cover the whole industries (the dominant industries are manufacturing industry, wholesale and retail, real estate);
►the respondents’ home countries (regions) are almost globally covered (most investments are derived from Hong Kong and Singapore).
Relevant links:
Chongqing Foreign Investment Environment Evaluation Report 2018: the overall score of the environment is relatively high
Chongqing Foreign Investment Environment Evaluation Report 2018: Turnover Increases Further
Chongqing Foreign Investment Environment Evaluation Report 2018: over 60% respondents intend to expand their businesses