China's commerce ministry highlights roundtable's role for foreign-funded enterprises

BEIJING, Feb. 20 -- China's Ministry of Commerce on Tuesday said the ministry will continue to give full play to the role of a roundtable meeting system for foreign-funded enterprises this year as good results have achieved since its establishment in July 2023.

Since the establishment of the roundtable system more than half a year ago, the communication between government departments, foreign-funded enterprises and foreign business associations has been effectively improved, and a series of targeted measures have been launched to continuously enhance the sense of acquisition of foreign-funded enterprises, said the commerce ministry.

As of the end of last month, the ministry said it has held 16 roundtables for foreign-funded enterprises, including roundtables hosted for different countries, particularly for Japanese-funded enterprises, German small and medium-sized enterprises, and Belgian enterprises. There were also roundtables held for different industries, such as for pharmaceutical enterprises, incubation and innovation enterprises, and automobile consumer goods enterprises; and roundtables hosted for different topics, such as for policy interpretation, key foreign-funded projects, and foreign trade symposiums.

More than 400 foreign-funded enterprises and foreign-funded business associations have attended these meetings, with more than 300 issues highlighted at the meetings solved.

At the same time, a provincial level roundtable meeting system had also been established, with more than 140 roundtables having been held so far, in attendance were more than 2,200 foreign-funded enterprises and foreign business associations, with more than 900 issues solved.

In September 2023, the ministry also launched an "online roundtable for foreign-funded enterprises" to collect and handle problems and appeals.

This year, the ministry will hold such meetings once a month, covering themes such as promoting bilateral and multilateral economic and trade exchanges, providing services to ensure the landing of key foreign-funded projects, continuously optimizing the business environment, and helping implement major regional strategies.

The ministry said it will listen to opinions and suggestions of enterprises in earnest, strengthen the publicity and interpretation of policies, and strive to solve difficulties and obstacles, so as to create a better investment environment for foreign enterprises in China.

In 2023, China's actual foreign direct investment hit 163.25 billion U.S. dollars, remaining at a historically high level, said the commerce ministry.