In 2020, Fuzhou’s utilized foreign investment increased by 7.3% to reach RMB 7.01 billion, the second-highest amount in Fujian Province. 

Foreign Investment Promotion Platform Functions Effectively 

In 2020, Fuzhou hosted matchmaking events for a number of key clients and major projects online via the “Cloud Investment Promotion” and “Cloud Agreement Signing”. City officials also made the best use of major investment promotion platforms, such as the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT) in Xiamen, the Global Youth Summit, the Digital China Summit, the China International Import Expo, and the Cross-Strait CEO Summit. Through these platforms, city officials launched “attracting large investors” events and hosted matchmaking events for more than a hundred domestic and overseas delegations from renowned companies, including the SM Group, Mapletree Group, Spring Asia Group, Jinmao Holdings Group, Advics, Toyota Tsusho, VIPS, Virtues Investment, and Jinyuan President Securities. During the 2020 CIFIT, the Fuzhou Matchmaking Symposium of Foreign Invested Projects was staged, with agreements signed on 75 investment projects valued at a total of USD 2.04 billion. Moreover, the “9+1+40” Investment Promotion Platform continued to function effectively. The value of utilized foreign investments in seven related counties (cities), districts and development zones leaped by 78%.  

Quality of Utilized Foreign Investments Continues to Rise

In line with the arrangements of the CPC Fuzhou Municipal Committee and the Fuzhou Municipal Government, all officials in the city worked tirelessly to push forward high-quality foreign investment projects and to accentuate the “strong chains”, “extended chains” and “supplemental chains” among the industrial chains. City officials also redoubled their efforts to promote investment projects related to “Digital Fuzhou”, “Marine Economy of Fuzhou”, and “Platform Economy of Fuzhou”. The city’s manufacturing sector continued to attract high-quality foreign investment, and the service sector and the high-tech manufacturing sector remained the most popular destinations for foreign investment. The structure of utilized foreign investment was constantly optimized. First, the actual value of utilized foreign investment in the service sector surged by 26.7% to reach RMB 6.27 billion, accounting for 89.4% of the city’s total. Specifically, the growth rated reached 85.5%, 95.6 times and 41.1% in the financial industry, the construction and engineering service industry and the tourism industry, respectively. Second, the actual value of utilized foreign investment in the high-tech manufacturing sector soared by 3.9 times. Specifically, the growth rate hit 10.4 times in the pharmaceutical manufacturing industry and 5.5 times in the electronic and communications equipment manufacturing industry. 

Large-scale Projects Proved to Be Drivers of Growth 

City officials followed closely up on major foreign investment projects, assigned dedicated teams to take charge, and improved the mechanism of negotiating for large-scale projects on a case-by-case basis. Efforts were also made to optimize government services and create a better business environment. Officials provided coordination and logistical support services for the entire process of large-scale projects, from site selection and project implementation to construction and production. The city added 57 foreign investment projects each valued at more than RMB 100 million, with the combined total value of contractual foreign investments amounting to RMB 13.36 billion. Twenty-one enterprises each had cumulative total actualized capital in excess of RMB 100 million, surging by 22.3% on average and contributing 16.3 percentage points to the growth rate of Fuzhou’s utilized foreign investment. Among these enterprises, Tianlong Digital Technology, Wanhua Chemical, Zhongji Logistics, Hairun City Development, Strait Transportation Venture Investment and Shengyang Development all had actualized capital for their major investment projects. 

Multi-prong Approach Adopted to Sustain FIEs’ Confidence 

Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, Fuzhou officials have vigorously promoted the series of incentive policies enacted by provincial and municipal authorities in response to the pandemic. Officials visited foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs) to announce new policies. Moreover, officials introduced specific measures to support FIEs’ investment expansion, optimized services for FIEs, and offered rewards to FIEs which had increased investment and expanded production (such expansion was deemed equivalent to actualized capital). Thanks to the spillover effect of the policy, investment in Fuzhou by some developed countries and Hong Kong steadily grew. Specifically, the growth rate was 3.4 times for Singapore, 33.6% for Hong Kong, 2.8 times for countries and regions along the Belt and Road, and 37% for Europe. Investment in Fuzhou from developed economies increased sharply. Moreover, officials visited enterprises to find out more about the impact of the pandemic on business, and coordinated in a timely manner to help enterprises solve problems in the resumption of production. All the 554 FIEs above the designated scale have resumed production. Commerce officials also hosted the “Government-Bank-Enterprise” Matchmaking Symposia to ensure that enterprises could receive timely financial services from banks for production resumption. The symposia led to about RMB 6 billion in loans for enterprises.