Foreign companies confident in Suzhou

East China's Jiangsu province held an online signing ceremony for foreign investments on May 16, where it was confirmed that 13 projects worth a total of $2.73 billion would be established in Suzhou, a prosperous city located in the southern part of the province.

HL Klemove, a company solely funded by its South Korean parent group Mando that focuses on manufacturing auto parts in Suzhou New District, was among the 13 new projects. A total of 900 million yuan ($133.29 million) will be invested to build the third phase of its plant in the district.

Thirty-nine local enterprises that recently won provincial recognition for their regional headquarters and functional agencies of multinational corporations were awarded honorary plaques at the ceremony. The total number of such enterprises in Suzhou reached 171, accounting for 51.7 percent of the provincial total.

What is the reason behind this increase in foreign investment in Suzhou, a city that has seen a COVID-19 resurgence in the past few months? The answer may lie in its strong but resilient foreign trade statistics.

The total value of the city's exports and imports hit 637.78 billion yuan in the first quarter of this year, up 14.1 percent year on year. Exports rose 14.2 percent to 374.51 billion yuan, while imports rose 14.1 percent to 263.27 billion yuan. The city's actual use of foreign direct investment expanded 50.6 percent year on year to $3.49 billion, with the service industry seeing its FDI inflows jump by 88.2 percent from a year earlier.

In addition to its open and welcoming business environment, Suzhou has attached importance to the development of foreign companies and has been earning their favor and trust.

Moving forward, Suzhou will strive to develop itself into an important hub for foreign company headquarters in the Yangtze River Delta region and throughout China, and continue to make full use of foreign capital and open its economy.