CCTV News: On February 20, the State Council Information Office held a regular briefing on the State Council’s policies.

At the press conference, a reporter asked, "We paid attention to the data released by the Ministry of Commerce yesterday. The decline in actual use of foreign capital in my country narrowed significantly in January. Can you give a detailed introduction to the current situation of attracting and utilizing foreign capital?

Ling Ji, Vice Minister of Commerce and Deputy Representative for International Trade Negotiations, responded that in January this year, our actual use of foreign capital was RMB 97.59 billion, a year-on-year decrease of 13.4%. This decline narrowed compared with the whole year of last year, but it was still on a downward trend. I would like to talk about our views on this reason.

First, global cross-border investment, that is, global FDI is still relatively sluggish. Due to the slow recovery of the global economy, it has not yet reached the level before the COVID-19 pandemic, especially the lack of economic growth momentum in developed economies, and global cross-border direct investment has not yet reached the trough. The "Global Investment Trend Monitoring Report" released by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development in January this year showed that FDI inflows into developing countries has declined for two consecutive years. This is a global overall situation.

Secondly, the external environment we face is still severe and complex. Geopolitical conflicts have intensified, and unilateralism and protectionism have increased significantly. The impact of this situation on our attracting foreign assets cannot be underestimated. Third, due to many factors such as the development and changes of domestic related industries, some multinational companies have actively adjusted their investment layout. For example, the scale of investment attraction in my country's automobile manufacturing, machinery manufacturing, clothing and other industries has declined to varying degrees. At the same time, my country's economic foundation is stable, has many advantages, strong resilience, great potential, and long-term improvement support conditions and basic trends have not changed. my country's super-large-scale market, a complete and efficient industrial chain and supply chain system, and a continuously optimized innovation environment have provided good development conditions and soil for multinational companies to invest in China, and it still has a solid foundation for stabilizing foreign investment.

We will open up the data on attracting foreign investment in 2025 to everyone. In addition to the decline, there are some highlights. First, the actual use of foreign capital increased month-on-month, that is, the actual amount of foreign capital used in January this year increased by 27.5% compared with December last year, an increase of month-on-month. Second, the structure of the asset-attracting industry has continued to be optimized, and the actual use of foreign capital in manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing increased by 2.6 and 0.8 percentage points respectively at the end of 2024. The actual use of foreign capital in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and the scientific and technological achievement transformation service industry increased by 68.4% and 23.9% respectively, which is a structural change. Third, the sources of investment attraction are more diversified. Investment in China by the United Kingdom, South Korea, the Netherlands and Japan have all seen double-digit growth, and investment in China by countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" is growing rapidly. Recently, we have noticed that the "2025 China Business Environment Survey Report" released by the American Chamber of Commerce in China shows that nearly 70% of the companies surveyed in the consumer industry are expected to increase their investment in China in 2025. A business confidence survey report released by the British Chamber of Commerce in China shows that 76% of the companies surveyed said they would maintain their current investment levels or increase their investment; a report by the German Chamber of Commerce in China shows that 92% of the companies surveyed plan to continue operating in China, and more than half of the companies plan to increase their investment in the next two years. I think these data reflect the willingness and confidence of multinational companies to continue to invest in and deepen their roots in China. At the same time, according to the data released by the National Bureau of Statistics, the profits of industrial enterprises above the designated size in the country in 2024 were 5.4%, while the profits of industrial enterprises above the designated size were 6.6%, and the foreign-invested enterprises were 1.2 percentage points higher. With the reform measures of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the deployment of the Central Economic Work Conference, as well as the action plan to stabilize foreign investment this year, we believe that investing in China has a promising future and a promising future.