As more products and technologies from all over the world were presented at the second China International Import Expo (CIIE), foreign firms lauded China's efforts to open its market wider and foster an enabling business environment.
The second CIIE is a solid indication of China's commitment to opening up its market, said Mark Alexander, chief innovation officer of U.S. firm Baxco Pharmaceutical, Inc.
"We have been meeting great companies here in China and we are going to create different kinds of ventures with them in food, nutrition and bioscience connected to agriculture. My commitment is to turn this one-week event into something beyond a one-time thing, which endures based on friendship," Alexander said.
AECOM, an engineering multinational, set up its China headquarters in Shanghai one month after participating in the first CIIE, and opened two new offices in Chengdu and Changsha earlier this year, said Ian Chung, chief executive of AECOM for Greater China.
"We have felt the Chinese government's commitment to further opening up the market during the first CIIE and that has strengthened our confidence to establish greater presence in China," according to Chung.
When addressing the opening of the first CIIE, Chinese President Xi Jinping said China would stimulate the potential for increased imports, continue to broaden market access, foster a world-class business environment, explore new horizons of opening up, and promote international cooperation at multilateral and bilateral levels.
During the past year, China's policies to improve the business environment came one after another, as the country honored its promises with concrete actions.
This year, China further shortened its negative list for foreign investment, issued an overall plan for a new area of the Shanghai pilot free trade zone, approved a landmark foreign investment law and introduced a new regulation on optimizing the business environment, both set to take effect on Jan. 1, 2020.
"The foreign investment law is an effective action for creating a fair investment environment for multinationals," said Mike Roman, chairman and chief executive officer of 3M Company.
According to the latest World Bank report, China's ease of doing business ranking rose to 31 this year from 46 last year, and it is also among the 10 economies that improved the most on the ease of doing business after implementing regulatory reforms.
"The World Bank report is big acknowledgment of the Chinese government's efforts on improving the ease of doing business, providing examples for other developing countries," said Jin Liqun, president of the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank.
China will continue to improve the business environment to make it more market-oriented, law-based and internationalized, Xi said while addressing the opening of the second CIIE.
