Province still prime investment destination

South China's Guangdong province remained a prime destination for foreign investment in the first two months of the year, indicating that global enterprises continue to have a positive outlook on the province and the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Despite geopolitics and tariff frictions between the United States and major economies around the world, Guangdong, a global production base, attracted 3,484 new foreign-funded enterprises with an actual foreign investment of 23.31 billion yuan ($3.2 billion) in the two months ending February, up 16.8 percent and 5.9 percent year-on-year, respectively, said a senior provincial commerce official.

Zhu Xiaojun, deputy director of the Guangdong Provincial Department of Commerce, said Guangdong's foreign investment growth outperforms the national average and major peers at home, demonstrating the province's strong foreign investment attraction and economic vitality.

Guangdong relies on foreign investment and trade to help support its sustainable economic construction, and is one of the major provinces that utilizes offshore investment in the country.

The province has effectively helped promote multiple high-quality projects to increase capital and expand production since last May, with the help of a new round of foreign investment incentive policies, he said.

Zhu made the remarks at a news conference in the Guangdong provincial capital, Guangzhou, on Monday.

Liu Zhihong, deputy director of Huizhou Bureau of Commerce, said Japan's AGC Group, a key glass product manufacturer in the world, has increased its investment and production six consecutive times, leading to a total investment of $1.25 billion in its AGC Display Glass (Huizhou) Co Ltd.

To intensify efforts to attract overseas investment, Liu Dezeng, deputy director of Guangdong Board of Investment Promotion, said that earlier this month his board formulated several measures to encourage overseas sovereign wealth funds to invest in Guangdong, and to support and encourage them to continue increasing their greenfield investments in key areas such as strategic emerging industries and future industries within the province.

The measures aim to overcome the problems of "inability to enter "and "difficulty in investment" for sovereign wealth funds through innovative investment methods, providing a more competitive development environment for overseas sovereign wealth funds, he said.

Zhu said investments from developed countries and regions enjoyed a year-on-year growth of 52.2 percent in the first two months. Guangdong has attracted seven foreign-funded projects, with actual investment exceeding $100 million for each project, with actual foreign investment worth more than $1.5 billion, from January to February.

Guangdong's manufacturing sector played an outsized role in growth, with used foreign investment valued at 7.41 billion yuan in January and February, a year-on-year increase of 34.5 percent, 28.6 percentage points higher than its overall growth rate.

According to a recent report released by the American Chamber of Commerce in South China (AmCham South China), Guangzhou and Shenzhen ranked as the two most popular destinations for foreign investment on the Chinese mainland, with the two southern metropolises followed by Shanghai and Beijing.

Contact the writers at zhengcaixiong@chinadaily.com.cn