St. John Moore, chairman of the British Chamber of Commerce in China, addresses media in Beijing on Tuesday. Photo: Huang Ge/GT

Amid increased uncertainties in the global market and ongoing China-US trade war, British businesses remain confident about their operations in China thanks to the nation's continuous efforts to open up and its growing market scale.

More than half of British businesses in China are optimistic about their operations in 2020, and almost two-thirds intend to increase investments, according to an annual business survey released by the British Chamber of Commerce in China (BCCC) on Tuesday.

The optimism captured in this year's survey shows that China has ramped up efforts to "address foreign investors' concerns, including intellectual property rights protection," said St. John Moore, chairman of the BCCC. 

IPR protection fell to No.11 in 2019 from being the second most-pressing regulatory challenge for British businesses in the Chinese market in 2018, according to the survey. 

"There has been a lot of positive work [by the Chinese government] over the past two or three years. Particularly last year, we started to see that come through," the chairman told the Global Times on Tuesday, noting that foreign companies are finding a stronger IPR environment.

However, global and domestic economic uncertainties - such as the China-US trade war and China's slowing economy - are among the leading concerns of British executives, the survey revealed.

China-US trade tensions have not thus far affected British businesses in China, the chairman said. Indeed, there may be a rare opportunity for these businesses in the Chinese market amid US tensions, he said. 

"We've seen services increase in demand. That may be because just a degree of geopolitical uncertainty has warranted increased activity, which is being attributed to the broader environment... We see an opportunity there to satisfy the need in that environment."

As for the slowdown in economic growth in China, the chairman said, "We're not debating whether or not there is a slowing growth. But what is clear is that there's still growth from our point of view."

"British businesses are certainly seeing the opportunity," he noted.

"Yet there is more to be done to ensure a fair and level playing field," he said. 

One-quarter of businesses believe that foreign-invested enterprises are treated unequally compared with domestic competitors, and nearly two-fifths of them said that China's Foreign Investment Law, which will come in effect on January 1, 2020, will have no impact on their existing operations in China, the survey found.

Many Western companies haven't done any introspection facing rising competition in Chinese market and they often complain about others' "unfair competition" too much, so it is inevitable that these companies' market share will continue to decline, said Mei Xinyu, a research fellow at the Ministry of Commerce's Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation.

"If they do not change this way of thinking, I believe their market share will continue to decline. State-owned enterprises have no special treatment different from other companies facing market competition, except of course, some major projects involving national security strategy and poverty alleviation," Mei told the Global Times on Tuesday.

China is adopting a more open approach to foreign investment, which will be welcomed by foreign companies and encourage them to invest more in China, said Edmund Yang, a PricewaterhouseCoopers partner in Beijing for global mobility services.

Yang told the Global Times on Tuesday that the new Foreign Investment Law will provide more flexibility to foreign financial institutions. 

"My firm is in the services industry. More foreign companies increasing their investment in China will definitely help to generate more opportunities for us… and will be beneficial for the growth of the country's economy as well," said Yang.
Newspaper headline: British enterprises have confidence in China market