East China's Jiangsu province has seized the opportunity of the optimization and adjustment of the measures for COVID-19 prevention and control since the start of 2023 in a bid to carry out foreign economic and trade exchanges and cooperation, support foreign trade enterprises to expand the market and inject strong impetus to the stability and quality of foreign trade and investment.
Spearheading the province's foreign trade and foreign investment, Suzhou has made outstanding achievements since the start of this year by posting $796 million in foreign direct investment in January, up 28.7 percent year on year.
Ervin Yeo, CEO of Commercial Management of CapitaLand Investment (China):
CapitaLand has been in China for about 30 years. The time that we've been in Jiangsu and Suzhou has also been about 30 years. The first pile of Suzhou Industrial Park was driven by CapitaLand. Just a few weeks ago, Suzhou's Party Secretary Cao Lubao also came to Singapore. At that time he was the most senior official to come out after China's reopening. He came to Singapore, visited CapitaLand, held Suzhou Opening &Innovation Development Investment Promotion Symposium, and was very well received. CapitaLand also signed a memorandum of understanding, and we had 3 projects there. If Suzhou people have confidence in Suzhou Center, we have confidence in Suzhou, and this confidence continues to build and grow.
Jiangsu has reported a flying start in its foreign trade against the adversities, thanks to the unremitting joint efforts of provincial and municipal governments to promote investment and carry out economic and trade negotiations.
Xu Xiaoyan, Deputy Director of Foreign Affairs Office of Suzhou Industrial Park:
The Foreign Affairs Office of Jiangsu Provincial People's Government implemented Eight Measures to facilitate international business trips, which made us excited with a strong sense of gain. What impressed me most is the second measure which stipulates that for specific personnel to perform important economic and trade consultation tasks in specific countries, multiple round-trip calculations are made for one batch. This is a timely help for Suzhou Industrial Park.
With the support of pro-business policies, Nanjing, Suzhou, and Wuxi have sent trade officials to Singapore, Hong Kong, and Macao for a series of investment promotion as well as economic and trade negotiation activities, which has resulted in the signing of a number of major cooperation projects totaling over 260 billion yuan, fully demonstrating China's stable, robust, and resilient economic growth since the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, and further enhancing the confidence of the outside world in the future of China's economy.
2023 marks the tenth anniversary of the Belt and Road Initiative. Government departments at all levels in Jiangsu have actively promoted pragmatic cooperation in economy, trade, and culture with countries along the “Belt and Road”.
Enterprises such as Zhongjiang Group, Jiangsu Environmental Protection Group Co., Ltd. and Jiangsu Overseas Group Corporation, explored opportunities for industrial chain and capacity cooperation in the Gulf region by showing up at the first China Industrial Products Exhibition in the China-UAE Capacity Cooperation Demonstration Park in Abu Dhabi.
Fatima Al Hammadi, Chief Commercial Officer of KEZAD Group:
We believe this exhibition is a very successful one, and I think this is the first step to larger and more commercial and marketing activities for JOCIC Zone within KEZAD. We believe that JOCIC Economic Zone within the KEZAD ecosystem provides a good platform for Chinese investors to come, start their businesses, and grow from the UAE and Abu Dhabi.
With increasingly closer high-level exchanges, relevant provincial and municipal departments have invited senior leaders of foreign regional governments and business organizations, senior executives of world-renowned enterprises and representatives of foreign diplomatic missions in China to visit Jiangsu. Provincial and municipal officials have had 47 meetings with foreign dignitaries and senior executives of Fortune 500 companies.
Oliver Giersberg, Chief Operations China of BSH Home Appliances Group:
China is the most important market for BSH global. Since the beginning of this year, international traveling between BSH China and our German headquarters has resumed and increased significantly. Executives and experts of our global headquarters are looking forward to coming to China to deepen their understanding of the Chinese market, and as well to learn. Recently, our global CEO and chairman of the board of management encountered difficulties while planning his visit to China due to the recent congestion of the visa application channel. Here, after learning about the situation, the Jiangsu Foreign Affairs Office actively coordinated with the Consulate of China in Germany to help him successfully get the visa to China and make his visit as scheduled. Really great support. And this specific support promotes the essential business exchange of enterprises, which is so much beneficial for all of us. We are confident about our future development in Jiangsu and in China.
Foreign trade enterprises in Jiangsu have seized the opportunity to vie for orders and achieved fruitful results. In response to the restart of offline exhibitions overseas, the provincial and municipal commerce and foreign affairs departments have organized 245 foreign trade enterprises to participate in 38 key exhibitions overseas, including the Arab Health, Genera International Trade Fair for Energy and the Environment, Asia-Pacific Sourcing that added up to nearly 5,000 square meters in total exhibition areas.
Wei Xiujun, Chairman of Jiangsu International Conference and Exhibition Co., Ltd.:
The Jiangsu Provincial Department of Commerce has formulated trade promotion plans and policies while cities and regions in Jiangsu have also issued corresponding supporting policies, giving enterprises subsidies for booth fees or personnel fees, reducing the cost of exhibitors. It is estimated that in the first half of this year, enterprises in Jiangsu will be organized to participate in 70 exhibitions with overseas exhibition areas adding up to 19,000 square meters, which is about 90 percent in equivalent to that in 2019, the year before the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic.
