International Business Daily reporter Li Ning reported that German investment in China has achieved rapid growth since the beginning of this year, mainly due to the leadership of high-level visits, the attractiveness of investing in China, and the driving force of policy mechanisms. He Yadong, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, made this comment during a regular press conference on October 12th when answering questions from reporters from International Business Daily.
According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, Germany's actual investment in China increased by 21% year-on-year from January to August. Research by relevant German institutions shows that despite the tightening economic environment, Germany still has large-scale direct investment flowing to China. In the first half of this year, the proportion of investment targeting the Chinese market in Germany's outward direct investment increased to 16.4%, compared to 11.6% in the same period last year.
He Yadong stated that Germany's rapid growth in investment in China is mainly due to the leadership of high-level mutual visits. In November last year and June this year, the leaders of China and Germany successfully exchanged visits, held a series of activities such as the China Germany Economic and Technological Cooperation Forum and the Entrepreneurs Roundtable, which released positive signals of the two governments' firm support for China Germany economic and trade cooperation, and effectively boosted the confidence of enterprises in investment cooperation between the two countries.
The second is the attractiveness of investing in China. This year, the Ministry of Commerce held a series of activities called "Investment in China Year". German multinational company executives are visiting China one after another, seeking new opportunities for development in China. They are generally optimistic about the prospects of China's economic development, full of confidence in investing in China, and willing to continue to increase investment in China and deeply cultivate the Chinese market. At the same time, the Ministry of Commerce organized a special promotion in Germany, and local groups actively invested in Germany, continuously increasing investment attraction efforts.
The third is the driving force of policy mechanisms. The Ministry of Commerce plays a role in mechanisms such as specialized teams for key foreign-funded projects at all levels and roundtable meetings for foreign-funded enterprises to help enterprises solve difficulties and problems in their development, operation, and project implementation. Since last year, the special policies promoting the introduction of foreign R&D centers, manufacturing industry investment attraction, and incentive catalogs have gradually shown their effects. From January to August, German enterprises' actual investment in China in the fields of motor equipment manufacturing and chemical manufacturing increased by 172% and 91%, respectively.
Next, we will continue to create a market-oriented, legalized, and internationalized first-class business environment, attracting foreign investors, including German enterprises, to continue choosing and investing in China, and sharing the dividends of China's development, "He Yadong further stated.
The implementation of foreign investment projects benefits from the improvement of China's opening-up level and the implementation of relevant policies, and also reflects the strong attractiveness of the Chinese market. He Yadong also stated that the Chinese government has always been committed to promoting high-level opening-up to the outside world. Since 2017, the negative list of foreign investment access has been revised for five consecutive years. The 2021 version of the negative list of foreign investment access in the national and pilot free trade zones has been reduced to 31 and 27, respectively, in the seed industry Many industries and fields such as automobile and aircraft manufacturing, securities, banking, insurance, and vocational training have abolished or relaxed restrictions on foreign equity ratios, creating more market opportunities for foreign investors.
We will continue to reasonably reduce the negative list of foreign investment access, study the feasibility of further lifting or relaxing restrictions on foreign equity ratios, and attract more global factors to enter the Chinese market. At the same time, we will continue to work together with