From September 8 to 11, the 24th China International Fair for Investment and Trade (hereinafter referred to as 'CIFIT') was held in Xiamen. With the theme of 'Investment Links the World', this CIFIT attracted merchants from 119 countries and regions, built a strong brand of 'Invest in China', released positive signals of 'China Investment', and strived to build an international public platform to promote two-way investment, injecting confidence and momentum into the stability of global industrial and supply chains.

Foreign Investment Attraction Upgraded

In recent years, affected by factors such as the COVID-19 pandemic and geopolitical games, the scale of global cross-border direct investment has been declining for consecutive years. The 'China Two-Way Investment Report 2024' released during this CIFIT shows that global foreign direct investment (FDI) actually fell by 10% in 2023.

Facing the complex and severe situation, China has vigorously promoted the consolidation and extension of advantageous industries, cultivated and strengthened emerging industries, and made forward-looking layouts for future industries, further optimizing the structure of foreign investment attraction while enhancing the attractiveness of foreign investment. In 2023, China's absorption of foreign investment declined somewhat but still maintained a scale of one trillion yuan, at a relatively high historical level. At the same time, the quality of foreign investment utilization was further optimized. In 2023, China's high-tech industry attracted 423.34 billion yuan of foreign investment, accounting for 37.3% of the actual use of foreign capital, up 1.2 percentage points from 2022, a record high.

This development vitality was also fully reflected at this CIFIT. As an important platform to showcase China's advantageous industries, this CIFIT set up a 47,000-square-meter Industrial Innovation Development Pavilion, focusing on BRICS cooperation, supply chain innovation, new quality productive forces, green and low-carbon fields, etc., to display regional investment cooperation achievements, new technologies and products of industrial innovation and development, and development trends of strategic emerging industries and future industries. For example, the Digital Economy Exhibition Area gathered dozens of industry leaders, unicorns, and specialized and sophisticated enterprises such as Tencent Cloud, Tongfang Co., Ltd., Qi An Xin Technology, and Wentian Quantum to showcase their technologies and products in key digital fields.

Beijing Yunji Technology Co., Ltd. brought new service robots to the exhibition site. 'This commercial service robot can use tools, reason and understand tasks, and collaborate in groups. It has been put into use in hotels, hospitals, factories, and other places,' said Yang Zi, Vice President of Strategic Cooperation of the company. He expects to communicate and cooperate with more international business partners through the CIFIT platform and bring China's advanced technology and high-quality products to all parts of the world.

'In recent years, the characteristics of foreign capital inflows are shifting from capital-intensive to knowledge-intensive,' said Liu Minghua, Vice CEO of Deloitte China. Foreign investment flowing into high-tech enterprises such as scientific research and technical services has been increasing year by year, reaching 37.4% in 2023, a record high. As China's economy enters a new stage of development, new quality productive forces will further promote high-quality development.

China's new energy industry has attracted much attention. The New Energy and Green Innovation Exhibition Area set up at this CIFIT attracted the attention of many foreign investors. Guangdong Jiayi New Energy Technology Co., Ltd. displayed its self-developed low-pressure high-density solid-state hydrogen storage cylinder on site. 'Currently, China's hydrogen energy industry has formed an international market competitive advantage with high technological maturity and a relatively complete industrial chain of 'production, storage, transportation, and utilization'. As the global energy green and low-carbon transition accelerates, foreign investors are increasingly interested in China's new energy industry. At present, some overseas merchants have expressed investment intentions to us,' said Zhang Feiyu, R&D engineer of the company.

Outward Investment Continues to Deepen

While promoting the good voice of 'Invest in China', this CIFIT also focused on showcasing the new opportunities brought by 'China Investment' to overseas markets.

In the Global Development Cooperation Exhibition Area, many key Chinese outward investment enterprises exhibited and set up booths, focusing on displaying the development achievements and excellent cases of 'China Investment' and 'China Construction'. 'In recent years, we have achieved many results in implementing the 'going global' strategy and promoting high-quality Belt and Road cooperation,' said Kang Hubiao, Chairman and Party Secretary of China General Technology International Holdings Co., Ltd. In recent years, China General Technology has undertaken a number of overseas investment projects such as new energy development and international production capacity cooperation, which help enhance the sustainable development capacity of target countries.

Liu Meiling, Director of the Guangzhou Office of the Thailand Board of Investment, introduced that China has become one of Thailand's most important sources of foreign direct investment, covering various industries, including high value-added industries such as automobile manufacturing, intelligent electronics, and the digital economy, which play an important role in promoting Thailand's economic development.

'Welcome more Chinese enterprises to invest and do business.' Sheikh Saud bin Saqr Al Qasimi, Member of the Supreme Council of the UAE and Ruler of Ras Al Khaimah, expressed the sentiments of many foreign guests at the opening ceremony of this CIFIT. At this CIFIT, the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, the Ministry of Investment and Foreign Economic Relations of Myanmar, the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency, and many other countries and regions set up pavilions to promote local industries and investment preferential policies, hoping to further seize the opportunities of 'China Investment'.

Gábor Jeney, Director of the Hungarian Export Promotion Agency, said that in recent years, China's investment in Hungary has been expanding and diversifying, promoting Hungary's economic prosperity. 'We still have huge potential for investment cooperation and hope to find more investment partners. We will also provide a fairer, more transparent, and more efficient investment environment.'

The head of a Hungarian construction company said, 'We are currently carrying out investment cooperation with many Chinese enterprises and have learned a lot of experience in the process. We hope to meet more potential Chinese partners and explore more cooperation possibilities through this CIFIT.'

Focusing on Supply Chain Innovation and Development

The supply chain connects industry at one end and the market at the other, gathering logistics, business flow, information flow, and capital flow, and is related to economic security. While promoting two-way investment, this CIFIT organized business people from various countries to focus on discussing the security risks faced by the current supply chain and to find positive ways to maintain the security and stability of the global supply chain.

Toshio Shinoda, Executive Officer of Marubeni Corporation and Chief Representative in China, said that in recent years, global economic changes and technological updates have accelerated, making traditional business models insufficient. China has advantages in the application of new technologies in the medical field. Currently, the company is registering medical imaging and AI diagnostic assistance software products developed in China as medical devices in Japan and promoting them to the Japanese market.

Song Hua, Professor of the Business School of Renmin University of China, proposed that the core of new quality productive forces in the supply chain lies in promoting supply chain innovation with digital technology, which is not only reflected in higher efficiency, lower costs, and faster response speeds, but more importantly, can promote value co-creation at all links of the supply chain, drive the upgrade and transformation of the entire industrial ecosystem, and at the same time take into account environmental protection and social responsibility.

Current digital technologies, especially artificial intelligence, are regarded as one of the key paths to improving the transparency and stability of global supply chains. Zhang Wei, Vice President of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation of the Ministry of Commerce, believes that focus should be placed on the digital transformation of supply chains to improve the level of supply chain innovation and application.

The 'China Supply Chain Development Report (2023-2024)' proposes that the application of the Internet of Things and emerging intelligent technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, and big data analysis is the core of intelligent supply chain upgrading. Chinese enterprises are accelerating the digital transformation process to achieve intelligent upgrading of the supply chain.

In the Supply Chain Innovation Exhibition Area set up for the first time at this CIFIT, a relevant person in charge of Xiamen Xiangyu Co., Ltd. was introducing the importance of smooth supply chains to merchants. He said that the stability of the current global supply chain faces a series of challenges. Xiangyu Company has deeply cultivated core industrial chains such as metal minerals, agricultural products, energy and chemicals, and new energy, extended and expanded service boundaries upstream and downstream, and provided comprehensive service solutions with a rich and diverse portfolio of bulk commodities and a mature and stable global channel network.

Xu Xiaoxi, Chairman of Xiamen ITG Holding Group Co., Ltd., introduced that a supply chain platform developed by the company covers multiple business areas such as paper, metals, agricultural products, energy, petrochemicals, and chemicals, with cumulative orders exceeding 100,000 throughout the year and transaction amounts exceeding 40 billion yuan. 'The group expects to cooperate with more Chinese and foreign enterprises through the CIFIT platform and draw a blueprint for the stable development of the global supply chain.'