South China FTZ beefs up efforts to draw foreign investment

A free trade zone (FTZ) in south China's Guangxi, a border autonomous region with strong ties with Southeast Asia, has given full play to its strength in attracting foreign investment and driving local economic development.

In the first eight months of this year, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone saw its paid-in foreign investment total 2.24 billion yuan (nearly 314 million U.S. dollars), nearly tripling the figure of the same period last year, leading China's free trade zones in the growth in attracting foreign investment. As a coastal and border pilot free trade zone which connects the Greater Bay Area and has strong trade and investment ties with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), it is working to transform its geographical advantages into the potential for attracting investment.

At the Qinzhou Port Area of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone, a foreign-funded enterprise in new energy manufacturing is optimistic about Guangxi's unique location and industrial chain advantages. After investing over 300 million U.S. dollars in building a battery-grade lithium hydroxide project, it has increased more investment this year, focusing on upgrading and expanding production lines.

"To meet our production and operational needs, we have recently increased our registered capital by 160 million U.S. dollars for technological upgrades. Currently, we are implementing a technical transformation project to enable flexible conversion between lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate production, with the first phase scheduled for completion and trial operation by the end of 2025," said Zhu Zhongqiu, general manager of Guangxi Albemarle Lithium Co., Ltd.

Recently, Guangxi rolled out an action plan to stabilize foreign investment, with a key emphasis on encouraging foreign capital to flow into competitive industries such as new energy vehicles. To this end, the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone has fully utilized its open platform advantages, innovatively expanded channels for attracting investment, and established fast-track service channels for major projects, with a key focus on solutions for issues like production factor guarantees.

"We regularly host roundtable meetings for foreign-invested enterprises and have established a dedicated service mechanism for major projects to promptly assist companies in resolving their difficulties. Moving forward, we will comprehensively align with high-standard international economic and trade rules, tap into our strong trade and investment cooperation with ASEAN, and boldly explore areas such as artificial intelligence, digital economy, and service trade. This will promote high-quality investment through institutional opening-up," said Wang Xinhong, deputy director of the Office of the Guangxi Pilot Free Trade Zone.

South China FTZ beefs up efforts to draw foreign investment

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's official visit to China signals a policy shift towards building a more pragmatic relationship between the two countries, according to a Canadian researcher.

Carney arrived in Beijing on Wednesday to begin an official visit to China through Saturday, which marks the first trip by a Canadian Prime Minister to the country in eight years.

Robert Hanlon, director and principal investigator of Canada and the Asia Pacific Policy Project (CAPPP) at Thompson Rivers University in British Columbia, told the China Global Television Network (CGTN) that Carney's visit indicates Canada is recalibrating its strategic perception of China, which could cement the foundation for the country's economic diversification efforts and boost the development of bilateral cooperation.

"I think it's a clear message that he has moved Canada's strategy to a much more pragmatic, interest-based, -focused relationship with our trading partners, moving away from values-based narratives that we might have heard on previous governments. Canada has spoken about moving from what the Prime Minister's Office is calling "from reliance to resilience", and that means diversifying our economies and our trade everywhere in the world. And so China being our second largest trading partner, it makes perfect sense for our PM to head to Beijing," he said.

The scholar also noted the huge cooperation potential between the two sides in economic and trade fields, citing Canada's efforts to step up shipments of liquefied natural gas (LNG) and the planned construction of an oil pipeline in Alberta which aims to increase export access to Asian markets. "Canada and China both share tremendous economic opportunities together and so finding ways to enhance our exports. Canada specifically looking to build out its LNG and oil, kind of export market. We know Canada is a major producer of critical minerals and China is a buyer. And so there's a lot of synergy between that kind of those kind of markets," he said.

Canadian PM's visit to China paves way for more pragmatic trade ties: scholar