On April 22, Exxon Mobil officially started an ethane program in Huizhou city, South China's Guangdong province, in which it has invested $10 billion.
It should be noted that the program started when the whole world is fighting the COVID-19 pandemic, global oil prices are low, and many oil enterprises have been cutting production.
Yet the corporation chose to make a big, long-term investment in China, which shows its confidence in China's economic potential and high expectations that China's economy will continue to grow.
It's confidence comes from China's good infrastructure and good business environment. It took only 18 months for Exxon Mobile and local cooperators of Guangzhou to finish all the preparatory work for the program, which shows the city's excellent coordination capabilities and services.
That's only part of China's competence in doing business. Just like Darren Woods, CEO of Exxon Mobile, said at the opening ceremony, besides infrastructure, new laws and regulations have also helped to make the Chinese economy more attractive, which is why they decided to invest in the program.
Some U.S. politicians were boasting about withdrawing U.S. enterprises from China since the outbreak of the novel coronavirus. The launch of the project is a slap in the face for them.
For the past three months, the government has effectively brought the virus under control in China. As production is resumed, the economic potential of China will be fully demonstrated and global capital will be confident in investing in China.
On April 8, as soon as Wuhan lifted its lockdown, U.S. enterprise Walmart announced it would invest an additional 3 billion yuan ($420 million) in Wuhan. A joint report of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai and PricewaterhouseCoopers on April 17 shows that 70 percent of U.S. enterprises in China do not plan to move their businesses out of China.
Their choice shows their confidence in China, and time will prove they have made a right choice.
The fundamentals of the Chinese economy will prove they have made a right choice, as the country remains an important hub in the global industrial chain and a popular global investment destination. As China will continue to open up, those keen and far-sighted multinational companies will surely gain more opportunities for mutual benefit and secure win-win results in the process of participating in China's economic recovery and development.
