China's changing pattern of FDI
- By John Ross
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E-mail China.org.cn, October 16, 2014
China's unparalleled market expansion presents decisive advantages for potential company growth. In stagnant or more slowly growing markets, such as the U.S. and Europe, to achieve rapid growth most companies have to increase market share. In China, in contrast, rapid growth can be achieved without gaining market share but simply through ongoing market expansion - an easier prospect. FDI is therefore increasingly taking advantage of China's domestic market, not for exports. A further result, consequently, is that FDI increasingly flows into the service sector, which primarily serves China's domestic market and not exports. In 2013, 52 percent of inward FDI went into China's service sector.
But if China's market expansion is the world's fastest, there is no doubt competition for companies engaged in FDI is becoming tougher in certain respects. In its earlier stages of development, China so badly needed FDI that it offered formal tax concessions and regulatory enforcement was sometimes lax. Tax concessions are already largely abolished, and lax enforcement is being tightened.
The latter includes dealing with criminality - in 2010 RTZ employees in China admitted taking kickbacks and recently GlaxoSmithKline was fined US$490 million after it was found to have bribed doctors to sell its drugs. Anti-competitive behavior is also being clamped down on. This year six infant milk powder companies were convicted of price fixing, and fined US$110 million, while 12 Japanese auto-parts makers were also fined US$200 million for the same offence.
Foreign companies investing in China continue to enjoy clear advantages in key sectors. These include in advanced technology industries, apart from defence - for example high end computer services and civil aircraft production; highly concentrated global industries dominated by global producers such as automobiles, and non-financial services in general - for example supermarkets and fast food chains. But in medium technology, or many rapidly growing industries, Chinese companies are increasingly tough competitors - Lenovo not only dominates China's domestic computer market but has become the number 1 PC producer globally, while China's smartphone manufacturers, such as Xiaomi, Lenovo and Huawei, are increasingly effective in domestic competition with Apple and Samsung.
Given the size and growth of China's market, inward FDI will remain at very high levels. But the days of China as a cheap labor export base are ended, and it is increasingly China's own domestic market which is the attraction for foreign companies. Foreign firms have to get into what is already the world's most rapidly growing market, which within a decade will also be the world's largest, but the full range of their competitive skills are increasingly required for this.
The writer is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit: http://www.keyanhelp.cn/opinion/johnross.htm
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