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China still attractive to foreign investment despite COVID-19: AmCham Shanghai president

Abstract : The COVID-19 pandemic will not change China's role as a hot investment destination with a flexible and robust economy, Ker Gibbs, president of American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai (AmCham Shanghai), told Xinhua in an interview.

SHANGHAI, June 25 (Xinhua) — The COVID-19 pandemic will not change
China’s role as a hot investment destination with a flexible and robust
economy, Ker Gibbs, president of American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai
(AmCham Shanghai), told Xinhua in an interview.

Noting that China is still attractive to foreign companies, Gibbs
said the package of measures the country has rolled out to lure and
support foreign investment will help secure its role as an investment
magnet.

“We were happy to see measures including trimming the negative list,
optimizing the business environment and strengthening intellectual
property protection,” he said.

Figures by the National Bureau of Statistics showed that China’s
economic recovery continued to be on track with manufacturing,
investment and consumer spending picking up, in keeping with Gibbs’s
observation.

“I was impressed by the flexibility and dexterity of China’s
economy,” he said. “Some restaurants closed their dining rooms and kept
the kitchen open for take-outs even though they’ve never done that
before. Also, retailers accelerated their e-commerce businesses to adapt
to the new situation,” said Gibbs.

Gibbs was also surprised by how quickly domestic demand has
recovered. “The Chinese market is quite big and there’s still quite a
lot of room to grow, even in the post-COVID-19 era,” he said. “Most
members of American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai have recovered quite
well.”

With regard to calls amid the pandemic for moving supply chains away
from China, Gibbs believes that the country still has an irreplaceable
role in the global supply chain with unique advantages in manufacturing
and logistics.

A recent survey by AmCham Shanghai showed that in the short term,
over 70 percent of respondents had no plans to relocate the production
and supply chains from China due to COVID-19. In the long term, around
40 percent of respondents said they will keep their supply chains in
China, while 52 percent said they had no plans to move out.

“There is no mass exodus (from the Chinese market) as a result of
COVID-19. Our survey showed that companies are considering adjustments
to their business strategy since COVID-19 has changed the way people
viewed their supply chains as companies have put more focus on risk
management,” he added.

He also highlighted the importance of healthy and stable development
of Sino-U.S. economic and trade relations. “Nobody’s happy about the
trade tension between China and the United States, and we’d like to see
it go away,” he said. “At a time when COVID-19 is still threatening the
global economy, I think it’s important and helpful to uphold a spirit of
cooperation.” Enditem

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Source: China still attractive to foreign investment despite COVID-19: AmCham Shanghai president

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