China offers fertile ground for global investors: vice commerce minister

China's appeal to foreign investors has continued to increase, with the steady optimization of its industrial structure making it a fertile ground for global businesses to expand their operations, Li Chenggang, the China international trade representative with the Ministry of Commerce and vice minister of commerce, said on Thursday.

Li was speaking at the Asia-Pacific Business Partnership Dialogue and the 2026 Suzhou Global Investment Promotion Conference, held ahead of the upcoming APEC trade ministers' meeting, which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday in east China's Suzhou, a city which is home to over 2,000 foreign enterprises.

According to the commerce ministry, the actual use of foreign direct investment (FDI) in the Chinese mainland totaled more than 747 billion yuan (nearly 107 billion U.S. dollars) in 2025, with over 70,300 new foreign-funded enterprises established nationwide, up 19 percent year on year. High-tech industries accounted for more than 30 percent of total foreign investment, underscoring China's role as a prime destination for international firms in the age of sci-tech innovation.

"China's emerging technologies in digitalization, intelligence, and green development are advancing rapidly, with industries expanding in scale. They provide rich application scenarios and investment opportunities for driving a new round of sci-tech and industrial transformation, creating powerful economies of scale and clustering effects. We will continue to expand the scope of opening to foreign investment and strengthen support, so that foreign enterprises are willing to come, able to stay, and positioned to thrive, thus sharing in the new opportunities of China's development," Li said.

The conference on Thursday drew more than 800 business leaders and representatives of foreign chambers of commerce from 33 countries and regions. Many participants said they came with clear cooperation goals, hoping to tap into China's vast market potential, expanding openness and vibrant innovation momentum.

"Singapore has a lot of research and development, but China has a lot of resources and manufacturing places that we can bring these theories to life. And I think that's a really good collaboration to have been made together," said Minnie Ang, chairman of Executive Director under the Suzhou Orientech Fine Blanking, a manufacturing company focused in the automotive industry.

Participants also said that China's complete industrial ecosystem and clear dual carbon goals of peaking carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and achieving carbon neutrality before 2060 not only provide the foundation for foreign enterprises to expand their high-tech presence in the country, but also give multinational companies a tangible view of China's vast market and development opportunities.

"I'm in particular interested in policies that actually enable high quality as well as future-proof growth via both de-carbonization and de-catalyzation. So this actually together creates tremendous momentum for us to power the new energy sector from EV manufacturing to the growing data center cooling needs, while also optimizing water and energy use in smart buildings as well as in industrial parks to support China's drive for the green upgrade," said John Markmann, president of Grundfos China, a leading pump and water solutions provider.

"For more than 40 years, we have consistently expanded our industrial presence in China. Our production base in Suzhou is the largest optical materials facility in the world, supplying the entire display and consumer electronics sectors. Optical materials have already become an indispensable part of the global consumer electronics market. Here in China, we can connect with partners across both upstream and downstream segments of the industry chain. Through digital transformation, AI, and other sustainable innovations, we aim to raise the overall level of the industry chain," said Henry Ding, senior vice president of 3M and president of 3M China, a multinational manufacturer of industrial and consumer products.

China offers fertile ground for global investors: vice commerce minister

Chinese Premier Li Qiang on Thursday presided over a State Council executive meeting that studied work on building a unified national market and reviewed and approved a plan for the development of a modern emergency response system during the 15th Five-Year Plan period (2026-2030).

Noting that building a unified national market is essential to advancing high-quality development, the meeting called for deepening institutional frameworks in areas such as property rights protection, market access, fair competition, social credit and market exit mechanisms.

The meeting also urged efforts to advance high-standard connectivity of market infrastructure to facilitate smooth economic circulation and effectively reduce logistics costs across society.

Emergency management is critical to protecting people's lives and property, the meeting said. It called for accelerating the development of a modern emergency response system, deepening reform and innovation in emergency management, and improving coordinated response mechanisms.

Efforts should be made to strengthen risk prevention at the source, enhance monitoring, forecasting and early warning, and accelerate a shift in governance toward proactive prevention, according to the meeting.

A draft revision of the Law on the People's Bank of China was also discussed and approved in principle at the meeting, which decided to submit the draft to the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress for deliberation.

Chinese premier chairs State Council executive meeting