Ling Ji, vice minister of commerce, delivers a speech at China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment New Year Reception held in Beijing on January 19, 2025. Photo: MOFCOM

The China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment held a New Year reception party in Beijing on Monday, drawing more than 300 representatives of foreign embassies, chambers and businesses, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Wednesday.

At the event, Ling Ji, vice minister of commerce, said that during the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25) period, China attracted more than $700 billion in foreign investment, ranking first among developing countries, and foreign-funded enterprises have played an important role in China's high-level opening-up and high-quality development, according to the MOFCOM release. 

He noted that the certainty of China's rapid economic development, the certainty of China's policies on utilizing foreign investment, and the certainty of China's economic and trade relations with other countries and its commitment to upholding the multilateral trading system would provide foreign companies with stable expectations for their operations in China.

Ling said that the proposals for the 15th Five-Year Plan  period (2026-30) have outlined a blueprint for China's development over the next five years and also provided an "opportunity list" for foreign enterprises. 

The vice minister expressed hope that foreign-funded companies would remain confident, continue to invest in China, expand their presence in the Chinese market, and share in the country's growth opportunities.

At the event, Sean Stein, president of the US-China Business Council, said that the US business community is willing to support China's high-quality development and expand areas of mutually beneficial cooperation, according to MOFCOM's release. 

Jens Eskelund, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, said that the European chamber and its member companies would continue to play a constructive role in promoting China's long-term sustainable development, according to the ministry.

Representatives of foreign-funded enterprises attending the reception party expressed confidence in China's growth prospects, citing the strong vitality of the vast market and the ongoing improvement of the business environment. They indicated their willingness to increase long-term investment in China and achieve mutually beneficial outcomes as part of China's high-quality development, said the MOFCOM.

Tom Simpson, managing director, China operations and China chief representative of the China-Britain Business Council, who participated in Monday's event, told the Global Times on Monday that "we greatly appreciate the close engagement that we enjoy with the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM)... We feel there are a lot of opportunities for us to exchange our thoughts, give our recommendations, and talk about ongoing issues and concerns that our members might have in terms of trade."

Talking about the potential of the Chinese market, Simpson said that "for us, where we're seeing a lot of positive activity is certainly in sectors like healthcare, international finance, and professional services, and the trade in services sector more broadly."

From the perspective of the global economic and trade environment, uncertainty, instability and unpredictability have risen, partly due to unilateral actions taken by certain countries that have fueled a resurgence of trade protectionism. Against this backdrop, capital increasingly seeks stable, certain and predictable conditions for value creation, and China provides such an environment, Li Yong, an executive council member of the China Society for WTO Studies, told the Global Times on Wednesday.

Li added that China remains one of the few markets able to consistently offer stability, certainty and predictability, "while the Chinese government's policy commitments are characterized by continuity and consistency, with their effective implementation becoming an important source of business confidence."

In addition, China's vast market size offers ample space for long-term capital deployment and future development planning. Compared with other markets, China not only has a clear scale advantage, but its middle-income group is also expected to continue expanding, the expert said, noting that with more supportive policies to be implemented in 2026, the first year of the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-30), the potential of the Chinese market will only get broader.