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An aerial view of Lujiazui, Shanghai Photo: VCG

The 2025 Government Work Report submitted on Wednesday to the National People's Congress (NPC) for deliberation has reinforced the country's commitment to sticking to high-level opening-up.  

Statements such as China "will encourage foreign investors to increase their reinvestment in China and support them in collaborating with upstream and downstream enterprises in industrial chains," and the country "will keep working to foster a first-rate business environment that is market oriented, law based, and internationalized, enabling foreign funded enterprises to achieve even greater business success" have strongly resonated with foreign businesses. 

Increasingly, a host of foreign corporate executives express confidence in the Chinese market, for it is embedded with greater growth potential.

Clear goals, concrete measures

China targets an economic growth rate of around 5 percent in 2025, a key growth benchmark set by the policymakers. 

This goal reflects China's confidence and determination in pursuing growth, said Anna An, President of Henkel Greater China region, noting that China's economy displays strong resilience and great potential, which makes foreign-funded enterprises, including Henkel, confident in the future of the Chinese market.

DFS is optimistic about China's 2025 growth, supported by a series of stimulus measures taken to boost consumption, promote technology innovation, and specific moves to boost the Hainan FTP, said Nancy Liu, President of DFS China.

The target of achieving a GDP growth rate of around 5 percent this year fits with China's economic recovery trajectory, demonstrating China's firm determination to solidify its economic foundation and foster sustainable growth, said Saravoot Yoovidhya, CEO of TCP Group.

In January, the IMF raised its forecast for China's economic growth in 2025 to 4.6 percent, up 0.1 percentage point from October's projection.

For context, China's manufacturing sector has remained the world's largest for 15 consecutive years now.

Ian Shih, Regional Vice President of Greater China with Rockwell Automation, said that China's favourable business environment and the booming manufacturing sector have provided the company, deeply rooted in China for more than 30 years, more confidence to continue to explore the market in tandem with its local partners.

As industries accelerate transition to greener and more efficient models, the demand for AI-driven smarter manufacturing solutions will continue to rise. "We firmly believe that China's focus on developing new quality productive forces will provide long-term growth opportunities for global companies like Dassault Systèmes," said Zhang Ying, managing director of Greater China with Dassault Systèmes.

European companies have a wealth of expertise to offer to the Chinese market that can help accelerate the green transition. To create the optimal conditions for this to happen, there needs to be a strengthening of EU-China relations at the political-level, said a note sent from the European Chamber of Commerce to the Global Times.

Favorable policies

In February, China worked out an action plan to stabilize foreign investment this year. It highlighted that foreign investment is a key aspect of promoting high-standard opening-up, which plays a significant role in fostering new quality productive forces and advancing Chinese modernization.

This year's Government Work Report reads: "we will keep working to foster a first-rate business environment that is market oriented, law based, and internationalized, enabling foreign funded enterprises to achieve even greater business success in China."

A series of opening-up policies reflect China's ramped-up efforts to create a more transparent, fair, and open business environment. 

"While this brings more development opportunities to business operations, it allows us to see China's determination to remain open and brings more confidence to foreign-funded enterprises," said Tetsuro Homma, executive vice president of Panasonic Holdings Corporation. Homma is also the president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China (CJCCI). 

A report released by CJCCI in February showed that, regarding investment in China in 2025, 58 percent of the respondents picked "increase investment" or "maintain investment" in China.

Many foreign enterprises continue to show their commitment to operating in China through pouring in significant investments.

French multinational Schneider Electric began construction of the Schneider Electric Xiamen Industrial Park in April in Xiamen, East China's Fujian Province, and in September launched the second phase of Jinshan Innovation Laboratory Park in Shanghai.

The US-based Huntsman Group said the capacity expansion project at Shanghai Caojing MDI plant has been approved, and the new high-purity isobutene project at its Nanjing Jinling Huntsman plant has started construction.

China has a large market, a strong industrial base and abundant innovation resources, while developing the new quality productive forces is set to provide an even stronger impetus for industrial upgrading. All these positive factors have encouraged Schneider Electric to expand its operations in China, said Yin Zheng, Executive Vice President of Schneider Electric's China & East Asia Operations.

"We firmly believe that, leveraging China's vast market size, ongoing innovation, and cost advantages, the overall profitability in this market will remain robust," said Kenny Pan, Vice President, Huntsman Polyurethanes.

Official data showed that in 2024, 59,080 newly foreign-invested enterprises were established in China, up 9.9 percent year on year. By the end of 2024, China had more than 1.23 million foreign-invested enterprises, with actual use of foreign capital reaching 20.6 trillion yuan.

"The strength developed in the Chinese market that brings together global players will become competitive on the world stage." said Yuyama Utsugi, executive officer of AGC Inc and chief representative of AGC Group for China. "We should not be limited to zero-sum thinking, but instead embrace China's innovation ecosystem, actively cooperate with Chinese universities and outstanding enterprises, accumulate strength and go global."

"We believe that as China consistently expands its opening-up, its influence in the global industrial chain, supply chain, and innovation chain will continue to rise, creating new opportunities for multinational companies," said Zhang Ying from Dassault Systèmes.