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economic observer reporter wang hui "astrazeneca will once again increase investment in the qingdao inhalation aerosol production and supply base project to us$750 million, further expanding production capacity and continuing to build a world-class smart, green and sustainable pharmaceutical factory." at the 5th qingdao summit of multinational corporation leaders held from august 27 to 29, 2024, wang lei, global executive vice president of astrazeneca of switzerland, told the economic observer.

astrazeneca is a pharmaceutical company with a global presence. since entering the chinese market more than 30 years ago, it has continued to deepen its roots in china and explore a path of localized development. this multinational company has also grown from its initial "in china, for china" to its current "in china, for china, benefiting the world."

astrazeneca's increased investment in qingdao is not only due to its focus on china's huge market, but also because it hopes to leverage china's growing innovation capabilities and use china as an important source of innovation to drive global research and development.

like astrazeneca, many multinational corporate leaders participating in this summit have a consensus: the factors that make the chinese market attractive to foreign investment are changing. in the past, china was known for its production capacity and cost advantages, but now its complete industrial chain and supply chain, sufficient supply of senior technical personnel and increasing innovation capabilities have brought new attractions.

china is considered the fastest changing market in the world. multinational companies in china are showing a trend of continuous differentiation and evolution. some have moved low-end production lines to southeast asia in pursuit of lower costs, some have returned and increased investment in china, and more are optimizing their investment layout according to the changes in china's industrial structure. all the changes of multinational companies in china can be found at this summit.

this summit brought together 451 multinational companies, all of whom had their own purposes for this trip - some to gain a deeper understanding of china's market dynamics, policy directions and development trends; others to enhance exchanges and expand cooperation during communication, further seize development opportunities in china, and promote the implementation of development results...

green industry contains new business opportunities

china's rapidly developing green industry is becoming a new area of ​​attention for foreign investment.

at this summit, wang lei announced that the company would increase investment in the qingdao base project to further expand production capacity and continue to build a world-class smart green pharmaceutical factory. the total investment in the project has reached us$750 million.

this is the second time that astrazeneca has increased its investment in the qingdao inhalation aerosol production and supply base project after qingdao and astrazeneca signed a memorandum of cooperation on capital increase in august 2023. at present, astrazeneca's phase i and phase ii inhalation aerosol production and supply base projects have been built simultaneously. after completion, it will become the world's most intelligent and largest production base for inhalation aerosol products.

for many years, astrazeneca has adhered to green and low-carbon development in production operations, research and development, and plans to achieve zero carbon emissions by 2045, which is in line with china's green development concept. at present, astrazeneca is actively transforming its three major production and supply bases in china, namely wuxi, taizhou and qingdao, into green production and supply bases.

taking the qingdao production and supply base as an example, at the beginning of the construction of the base, a green factory was built according to the leed gold standard, green electricity was purchased for construction, and the use of green building materials, resource recycling, photovoltaic power generation and energy storage were actively explored. in march 2024, astrazeneca signed a 10-year renewable energy contract with china resources gas to provide biomethane and biomethane-based steam for the wuxi supply base, helping the base achieve green heating.

since entering the chinese market in 1993, astrazeneca's layout in china has evolved from the initial "in china, for china" to the current "in china, for china, benefiting the world", becoming a microcosm of the development of multinational companies in china.

previously, in order to make good use of the chinese market and bring global new drugs to china, astrazeneca established a world-leading production and supply base and logistics center in china. as china's innovation capabilities increase, astrazeneca develops in tandem with china's medical innovation industry, gradually making china an important source of innovation for global r&d, and promoting innovative drugs developed in china to the world.

wang lei believes that with the continuous rise of innovation and green development in china, multinational companies can only truly benefit from it if they participate deeply. in the future, astrazeneca will continue to make breakthroughs in innovation and environmental protection, and with the help of astrazeneca's global network, promote regional innovation results that combine chinese and western elements to the world.

developed for china

at the beginning of 2024, the asia r&d center of henkel consumer products of germany was completed and put into use in yangpu bay valley, shanghai. this is the largest r&d center of henkel's consumer brands in asia, which will enhance henkel's local r&d capabilities in the two major business categories of hair care and detergents and household care; at the same time, henkel invested approximately 500 million yuan to expand the henkel shanghai innovation experience center in zhangjiang, shanghai. after completion, the center will become its second largest adhesive technology innovation center in the world.

henkel is a global chemical and consumer products company with businesses in adhesive technology and consumer products. china is henkel's third largest market in the world, with 10 factories, multiple technology centers, r&d centers and an innovation center under construction in china.

in the view of anna, president of henkel greater china, china has a huge consumer group and constantly upgrading consumer demand, which provides a broad market space for foreign-funded enterprises. as china's diversified and high-end consumer demand grows, henkel continues to strengthen its local r&d capabilities to respond to the unique consumer trends in the chinese market.

anna introduced that in the chinese market, henkel supports the development of local industries and talents through local sustainable innovation services and continuous investment. in addition to the existing yantai factory, henkel invested nearly 900 million yuan to build a new production base in shandong, kunpeng, to enhance henkel's supply capacity of high-end adhesive products in the chinese market. in may 2024, the kunpeng factory completed the capping of the first main building. by the end of 2024, the project will complete all civil engineering works and prepare for subsequent production and customer certification.

henkel is a microcosm of many multinational companies' investments in china. with the development of the economy, the consumption in the chinese market has been rapidly upgraded. multinational companies are developing and manufacturing products to adapt to the rapidly changing chinese market.

at the summit, reckitt benckiser global senior vice president and greater china president pu aijun said that in june this year, the company announced that it would establish a global r&d center of excellence in shanghai, which is one of reckitt benckiser's nine global r&d centers of excellence. currently, 95% of the company's products are tailored for chinese consumers. the company will support the development of all reckitt benckiser brands in china, enhance differentiated competitive advantages, provide chinese consumers with more locally developed innovative products, and promote them around the world.

agc corporation (hereinafter referred to as "agc") is the world's second largest glass products company. the company established a factory in china in the early days of china's reform and opening up, and has continued to invest and develop in china for more than 40 years. it can be said that agc has continued to grow along with china's development.

agc executive director and agc group china general representative toshihiro ueda said that china is the "world's factory" and a major innovation country. china is the only important market for agc group to carry out its business across the board, except japan. agc has been committed to introducing the most advanced technology to china and has set up a research and development department specifically for the chinese automobile market. as the chinese automobile market attaches great importance to in-car entertainment, agc has made a lot of efforts in high value-added functions such as ultraviolet resistance and quietness to meet this demand.

as a result, china has not only become one of the world's largest markets for many multinational companies, but also an important global innovation base for them.

investment opportunities for industrial upgrading

at present, china's industrial structure is at a critical stage of transformation from old to new drivers. on the one hand, emerging industries are constantly rising and future industries are being laid out in advance; on the other hand, traditional industries are also transforming and upgrading towards high-end and digitalization.

"the textile industry is not a sunset industry, but a pillar industry of china's economy. as an important upstream raw material industry of the textile industry, the chemical fiber industry will focus on high-end, intelligent, green and sustainable development in the future. it is also an important foundation for ensuring the competitiveness of china's textile industry." wang jun, president of china region of swiss oerlikon group (hereinafter referred to as "oerlikon"), told the economic observer.

in 1965, oerlikon entered the chinese textile market with barmag's first business in china. subsequently, oerlikon began a series of layouts in china's textile industry.

in oerlikon's view, the reason for investing in china is that china is the world's largest producer and consumer of chemical fibers. the global total output of chemical fibers has increased from 3% in 1978 to more than 70% in 2023, accounting for 85% of china's total fiber processing.

in addition, china's chemical fiber industry has reached an international leading position in terms of technological innovation, product structure, green manufacturing, and intelligent level, and the safety, stability and quality of the chemical fiber industry chain and supply chain have been continuously improved. at present, the market is putting forward higher requirements for technological innovation in chemical fiber equipment in terms of high quality, high efficiency, and low carbon, which also gives oerlikon greater development space in china.

wang jun introduced that chemical fibers have better properties than natural fibers, such as light weight and high strength. in addition to the traditional clothing and home textile fields, they are also widely used in industrial fields, such as automobiles, bridges, highways and environmental protection. for example, filament geotextiles made of polypropylene have flexible surfaces, tough structures, good chemical resistance, etc. they can be stored underground for decades and can be used to extend the service life of the road surface.

inco, south korea's largest manufacturer of lithium-ion battery electrolytes and electrolyte additives, has set its sights on china's emerging industry - the lithium-ion electrolyte industry.

electrolyte is one of the core raw materials for lithium battery production. the continuous expansion of china's new energy vehicle and power battery market has also driven the rapid expansion of the electrolyte industry.

in 2022, enke acquired a stake in shandong tianrun new energy materials co., ltd. and signed a contract with it for the enke tianrun lithium-ion battery electrolyte project with a total investment of us$800 million. the project will be expanded in 2023. after completion, the project will have an overall annual production capacity of 130,000 tons of electrolyte, with expected sales revenue of 8 billion to 10 billion yuan.

ye fuchen, general manager of enke tianrun new energy, introduced that enke's direct investment has brought advanced technology, management methods, international standards and rules, as well as competitive advantages in the international market, which has promoted the company's development and innovation.

opportunities and challenges coexist

at this summit, the ministry of commerce's international trade and economic cooperation research institute released a series of research reports on "multinational corporations in china". the report pointed out that in 2023, affected by factors such as weak economic growth and geopolitics, global direct investment as a whole showed a contraction trend, and foreign direct investment flowing to most regions declined slightly.

in line with the global trend, although the scale of china's investment has declined, it is still at a relatively high level in the past decade. in 2023, china's actual use of foreign direct investment fell by 13.7%. in 2023, 53,766 new foreign-invested enterprises were established nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 39.7%; in the first half of 2024, nearly 27,000 new foreign-invested enterprises were established nationwide, a year-on-year increase of 14.2%, continuing the trend of rapid growth in the number of foreign-invested enterprises since last year.

at the same time, multinational corporations in china are showing a trend of continuous optimization of their investment industry structure.

in 2023, the scale of investment in high-tech industries reached 423.34 billion yuan, accounting for 37.3% of the country's foreign investment, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over the full-year level in 2022, a record high. among them, the actual use of foreign capital in high-tech manufacturing increased by 6.5%. the medical equipment and instrument manufacturing industry and the electronic and communication equipment manufacturing industry increased by 32.1% and 12.2% respectively. the actual use of foreign capital in the construction industry, technology transformation services, and r&d and design services increased by 43.7%, 8.9% and 4.1% respectively.

from january to february 2024, 1,865 new foreign-invested enterprises were established in high-tech industries, a year-on-year increase of 32.2%, and actual foreign investment was 71.44 billion yuan, accounting for 33.2% of the country's actual foreign investment, an increase of 1.2 percentage points over the same period in 2023. among them, the actual foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing was 28.27 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 10.1%.

the layout of multinational corporations in china and the transformation of china's industrial structure from low-end manufacturing to high-end manufacturing are in line with china's general trend of accelerating the development of new quality productive forces and deepening the promotion of new industrialization.

at this summit, multinational companies have unveiled their plans to expand their presence in china.

germany's tkm group (hereinafter referred to as "tkm") is the world's largest manufacturer of mechanical blades. its global executive director pan yunxi said that since the company's market group in china is mid- to high-end customers, the order volume has been relatively stable in recent years.

previously, tkm's joint venture in shanghai had a production base, but due to different production conditions, it could not find the same machines in china, so some products could only be upgraded in germany. with the development of china's economy, tkm is also doing market research and deciding whether to move the production line back to china based on customer needs.

wang jun, president of oerlikon china, said that the chinese market is currently in a flat period and some of oerlikon's production lines are not fully operational. in the medium and long term, the company is optimistic about china's future development potential and will increase investment in china in the future.

agc executive director and agc group china general representative toshihiro ueda said that china has huge opportunities in new fields such as semiconductors, low-altitude economy, ai and iot. agc also pays close attention to its prospects in the chinese market and hopes to find new investment opportunities therein.

the "decision of the central committee of the communist party of china on further comprehensively deepening reforms and promoting chinese-style modernization" adopted at the third plenary session of the 20th central committee of the communist party of china proposed to "improve the system and mechanism of high-level opening up to the outside world."

while increasing their investment in china, some heads of multinational companies also expressed their expectations: although the chinese government has introduced policies to facilitate foreign investment, the release channels and explanatory documents are scattered and there is a lack of a unified portal, which makes it relatively time-consuming and laborious for foreign companies to obtain information. they hope that china can be more transparent in terms of policies and further optimize the business environment for foreign investment.