Global CEOs flock to China, embracing new opportunities in high-quality growth

China is taking the absolute centre stage this week.Executives of multinationals, representatives from international organizations and foreign institutions, as well as world-renowned scholars have flocked to the country, attending the ongoing Boao Forum for Asia Annual Conference 2024 and the China Development Forum (CDF) 2024 that concluded on Monday, offering insights into China's development and its global impact. This year's CDF drew more than 110 international guests, including the heads of the World Bank and the IMF, as well as executives of many Fortune 500 companies. Most remarkably, of the more than 80 business executives listed by the CDF, over 30 - or about 40 percent - are from the US. Apple CEO Tim Cook, Cristiano Amon of Qualcomm, Sanjay Mehrotra of Micron Technology, Lisa Su of Advanced Micro Devices, Darren Woods of ExxonMobil and Rajesh Subramaniam of FedEx were all on hand.New growth drivers present new opportunities  During the past week, from the CDF to the Boao Forum, as well as a special session of the "Invest in China" Summit held by the Ministry of Commerce, a series of back-to-back events underscored China's commitment to expanding high-level opening-up and its willingness to welcome more foreign companies to invest in the country.At the CDF on Sunday, Chinese Premier Li Qiang told global business executives that China welcomed foreign investment and was taking steps to improve its business environment.Chinese Commerce Minister Wang Wentao also met with global business leaders including Apple’s Cook, Qualcomm’s Amon and Visa’s Ryan McInerney during the two-day forum.China is accelerating the development of innovation-led new quality productive forces and has broad prospects in high-tech fields such as artificial intelligence and cloud computing, which means great opportunities for enterprises from all over the world, said the Chinese commerce minister.The increasing attention China is paying to innovation and sustainable development has provided a world-class business environment for multinational corporations’ growth in the country, which makes AstraZeneca feel confident about the future, the European pharmaceutical giant’s CEO Pascal Soriot said at the CDF.AstraZeneca inked memorandums of understanding on strategic cooperation with the government of Beijing’s Daxing district and high-quality local companies during the CDF to explore the collaborative business models on vaccines, Soriot noted. The firm recently announced it would build its fifth global strategic center in Shanghai.As China saw its economy begin the year on a solid note and press ahead with policies to maintain sound development, multinationals are ready to take the pulse of the Chinese market, as well as growth drivers generated from innovation.China’s gross domestic product growth target of 5 percent is achievable, Roland Busch, president and CEO of German conglomerate Siemens, told reporters during the forum. China is not only Siemens’ largest market in terms of application of industrial technologies but also one of its most innovative frontier markets, he added.Also, in a closely watched trip to China, Apple’s Tim Cook notably did not mince words when talking about the critical role China plays for the US tech giant."I love China and the people," Cook said in Beijing on Sunday when asked whether he enjoyed his trip to China.Cook said Apple remains committed to long-term development in China and will continue to increase investment in the supply chain, research and development, and sales in the country. He also said he was thrilled to be back in China.Cook arrived in China on March 20 to visit Apple’s headquarters in Shanghai and meet suppliers before the opening of the company’s second-largest store in the world in the eastern Chinese city.Lately, the State Council, the country's cabinet, announced 24 specific pro-foreign investment policies, including targeted measures to expand market access, enhance appeal to foreign investment, foster a level playing field, facilitate the flow of innovation factors, as well as better align domestic rules with high-standard international economic and trade rules.This came amid a drop in foreign direct investment in China in the first two months. FDI came in at 215.09 billion yuan ($29.75 billion) in the period, falling almost 20 percent year-on-year, while the number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises in China reached 7,160, up nearly 35 percent year-on-year in the same period, , data from the Ministry of Commerce showed.In terms of scale, China's actual use of FDI reached a record high of 268.44 billion yuan during the January-February period last year. Although the figure fell this year, it still is the third-highest in the past decade, said the head of the ministry's department of foreign investment administration in an online statement.From a structural perspective, China's high-tech industry saw the establishment of 1,865 new foreign-invested companies in the first two months, up 32 percent year-on-year. The actual use of FDI in this sector was 71.44 billion yuan, accounting for 33 percent of the country's total, up 1.2 percentage points compared to the same period of 2023.At this year's CDF, Zheng Shanjie, chairman of the country’s National Development and Reform Commission, said mutual benefits and win-win results to various market entities including foreign companies will emerge as China is building a modern industrial system supported by the advanced manufacturing sector that provide large new market demand, investment opportunities, and collaborative projects.Speaking on Tuesday at the Invest in China Summit 2024 in Beijing, Vice-President Han Zheng vowed to create more new business opportunities for foreign companies as China continues to explore and unleash market demand.Ling Ji, vice-minister of commerce and China's deputy international trade representative, said the country will further shorten the negative list for foreign investment access and create a level playing field for domestic and foreign businesses."The government will provide more precise policy support to attract investment in areas such as research and development centers, advanced manufacturing, green and low-carbon development and the digital economy," said Ling, adding that these policy measures will create favorable conditions for overseas businesses to participate in the development of China's new quality productive forces.Market openness attract global institutionsThanks to China' concrete action toward opening-up, many global financial institutions have stepped up their presence in the Chinese market this year despite the complex and volatile international environment, representing a vote of confidence in the prospects of the Chinese economy and eyeing more opportunities brought about by the country's high-level opening-up.Standard Chartered Securities (China) Ltd (SCSCL) - the first newly established wholly foreign-owned securities company in China - officially opened for business in Beijing recently.Global leading financial institutions, including Neuberger Berman and Fidelity International, have announced moves to increase their registered capital or set up branches in China recently. On February 26, the Shanghai operations of three world-leading international financial institutions - AllianceBernstein Fund Management Co Ltd, Amundi Fintech (Shanghai) Company Limited, and KKR Investment Management (Shanghai) Co Ltd - held a collective opening ceremony in Shanghai.In January, Chinese authorities said that 10 more foreign-funded institutions had been approved as lead underwriters or underwriters of debt financing instruments for non-financial enterprises. The expansion of a growing number of international financial institutions in China not only highlights the country's firm commitment to opening up its finance industry to international players, but also underscores great interest among these institutions in China's massive financial market and the huge potential it represents. According to Wind data, the inflow of northbound capital– money invested from the Hong Kong SAR into the Chinese mainland through stock connect programs – stood at 60.7 billion yuan in February, the highest in about a year. Between February 1 and March 25, northbound capital inflows reached approximately 83 billion yuan.Overseas institutions also increased their holdings of Chinese interbank bonds in February, official data has showed.By the end of last month, bonds in China's interbank market held by overseas institutions reached 3.95 trillion yuan (about 556.3 billion U.S. dollars), said a report released by the People's Bank of China Shanghai Head Office. The figure also showed a rise of 80 billion yuan from the end of January.Over recent years, China has rolled out a series of reform and opening-up measures in the financial sector. Of milestone significance in the reform of China's capital market was China rolling out its across-the-board registration-based IPO system in February 2023. In October 2023, the top-level Central Financial Work Conference held in Beijing stressed that it is imperative to accelerate the building of a nation with a strong financial sector, vowing to promote high-quality development of the financial sector.Meanwhile, China has been steadily promoting high-level opening-up in the financial sector, with more than 50 measures introduced, including allowing international investors to invest in the country's capital market via more channels and lifting ownership caps for foreign institutions for securities, futures and funds.