In 2020, Zhangzhou’s utilized foreign investment increased by 8% to reach RMB 4.11 billion, the second-largest growth rate in Fujian Province. 

Intensified Investment Promotion Campaigns 

Top city leaders played an increased role in investment promotion. For the full year, teams headed by the city’s top Party and government officials organized 105 investment promotion sessions involving 179 projects. Ten major investment promotion events were held online or offline, including the centralized agreement signing event for citywide investment projects during the first quarter of the year, the Zhangzhou Modern Agriculture Development Convention, the Zhangzhou Nighttime Economics Integrated Development Conference for the Cultural, Tourism and Sports Convention and Exhibition Industry. “Mega promotion” events were organized to push forward project negotiations, achieving significant results. In 2020, agreements were signed for 54 foreign investment projects valued at a total of RMB 24.7 billion. 

Proactive Services

To provide better services for foreign-invested enterprises (FIEs), all government departments of the city worked closely together to create an investment environment which is “truly caring and protective towards business”, and they also make proactive efforts to assist FIEs. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many FIEs were short of infection prevention supplies, faced shipping difficulties, and received fewer export orders. In response, the country and district commerce departments throughout the city procured 595,000 masks for the FIEs. City officials carried out “one-on-one” communication, visiting hundreds of FIEs. They also followed up closely on the progress of large-scale foreign-invested industrial projects, such as Gulei Petrochemical, Chimei, Fuxin, Toto, Cheng Shin, Teamfirst and Taiwan Glass. In order to stimulate FIEs’ willingness to increase their investments, the city’s Commerce Bureau offered provided policy consulting on investment and stock capital expansion for FIEs in collaboration with the Tax Bureau, the Foreign Exchange Administration, the Administration for Market Supervision, the Natural Resources Bureau, and the Ecology and Environment Bureau. This initiative was intended to promote the preferential policy that permits overseas investors to make direct investment with distributed profits. A total of 2,000 brochures on the policy were distributed. 

Thorough Policy Implementation 

Zhangzhou Municipal Commerce Bureau has compiled The Zhangzhou Action Plan for the Promotion of Investment in association with other government departments. Under the plan, FIEs are encouraged to invest in the construction of manufacturing facilities, and those who do so are entitled to a reward of RMB 20 million from the coffers of the city government treasury. 

In 2021, the City of Zhangzhou plans to organize a citywide competition in promoting investment in the industrial chains for the “Three Big and Three New Sectors” – Big Data, Big Health and Big Logistics, and New Energy, New Manufacturing and New Materials. There are also plans to establish a Zhangzhou Investment Promotion Could Service Platform and push forward the construction of 300 high-priority foreign investment projects. City officials will also introduce a new set of foreign investment promotion policies and visit enterprises to promote government policies. Furthermore, they plan to strengthen the monitoring of foreign investment indices and consolidate the foundation of foreign-invested projects, thereby maintaining the growth momentum of foreign investment.