More foreign investment welcome, vows premier
Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (2nd R) meets with executives of a number of famous multinational companies, who are in Beijing to attend the seventh round-table summit of the Global CEO Council, at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, capital of China, June 20, 2019. Li also held a symposium with the executives here on Thursday.
Premier Li Keqiang pledged yesterday to further open up China’s economy during a meeting with the CEOs of top global companies amid simmering trade tensions with the United States.
During the meeting in Beijing with the heads of 19 multinational companies, Li pledged to make China more attractive to foreign investors.
“We welcome more and more foreign investment,” Li told the group representing the Global CEO Council.
“We will also relax (restrictions on) access to even more fields to create a market-oriented, law-based international business environment.”
“As the instabilities and uncertainties of the international situation are on a rise, we need to push for the steady development of the world economy and trade, improve the global industrial chain and safeguard the peaceful global environment,” Li said.
“We have fully opened the manufacturing sector to foreign investors and will gradually open up the service sector,” he said, adding that Chinese companies need to improve themselves and achieve win-win outcomes through fair competition in global cooperation.
Li stressed that China’s development should be based on innovation, and protecting intellectual property equals protecting innovation. “We treat all enterprises registered in China equally, whether they are domestic or foreign. We will protect their legitimate rights and interests, including intellectual property.”
Among the industry leaders attending the meeting at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People were Volkswagen head Herbert Diess, Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla, Daimler’s Ola Kallenius, UPS Chief Executive David Abney, Honeywell CEO Darius Adamczyk and Nokia’s Rajeev Suri.
Jean-Pascal Tricoire, head of Schneider Electric, told Li that foreign firms are the “best bridges” between China and the rest of the world.
“Since some time though, the world has been going through turbulences, tensions and challenges,” Tricoire said.
The entrepreneurs attending the meeting also expressed willingness to help enhance global interconnectivity, safeguard free trade and oppose protectionism.
