Since the beginning of this year, Germany's investment in China has achieved rapid growth. According to statistics from the Ministry of Commerce, from January to August this year, Germany's actual investment in China increased by 21% year-on-year.
He Yadong, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, analyzed this at a regular press conference held on the afternoon of the 12th. He stated that in the context of global cross-border capital flow contraction, Germany's investment in China has maintained rapid growth due to three reasons:
One is the leadership of high-level mutual visits. In November last year and June this year, 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 trust 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. 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 Ministry of Commerce has gradually promoted the introduction of special policies such as foreign R&D centers, manufacturing industry investment attraction, and incentive catalogs, which have 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.
Der Spiegel magazine reported that research by the German Institute of Economics shows that German direct investment is still flowing on a large scale to China. In the first half of this year, German companies invested 10.3 billion euros in China, which is the second highest value recorded so far. More importantly, China's proportion of foreign direct investment in Germany has climbed to 16.4%, compared to 11.6% in the same period last year. This shows that German companies are not far away from China.
Siemens is one of them. Mirror Weekly reported in June that Siemens has announced a massive investment of 2 billion euros worldwide, including a 140 million euro expansion of its existing factory in Chengdu and the establishment of a new research and development center in Shenzhen. Siemens CEO Roland Busch emphasized to the German newspaper Business Daily that no company can miss out on the attractive market of China. ▲