57 pc of companies surveyed by China Chamber of Commerce in US lack confidence in opening of Chinese market

Beijing [China], February 2 (ANI/CNA): According to a survey by the China Chamber of Commerce in the US, 57 per cent of companies have insufficient confidence in the opening of the Chinese market.
The American Chamber of Commerce in China released the latest survey report. US companies investing in China Cautiously optimistic about the investment environment in 2024, 50 per cent of respondents ranked China as one of the top three investment destinations in the world, while 57 per cent of companies expressed a lack of confidence in the opening of the Chinese market.
Quoting the to Voice of America, the American Chamber of Commerce in China released the "China Business Environment Survey Report 2024" on the 1st.
The report mentioned that the attitude of American companies investing in China in 2024 is "cautiously optimistic."
Although business conditions have improved since the lifting of epidemic prevention and control measures and companies that regard China as the world's three major investment destinations have also rebounded, investment attitudes have still tended to be cautious, and tensions between the United States and China continue to affect the investment of US companies. The primary factor is attitude.
The report pointed out that in the 2023 report, only 45 per cent of respondents regarded China as the top three investment destinations in the world, marking the largest decline in the 25 years since the survey was conducted. One year later, in the 2024 report, this number has risen to 50 per cent, but it is still lower than the average level of 60% in previous years.
Regarding China's investment environment, 45 per cent of the surveyed companies in the 2023 report said that the environment has worsened, while this dropped to 35 per cent in this year's report.
Another 28 per cent of the respondents believed that China's investment environment is improving. An increase of 7 percentage points from the previous year.
The report quoted Sean Stein, chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce in China, as saying that there are many signs that China's economy is beginning to stabilize and recover from the difficult period in 2023.
Therefore, "even though we may not see a significant increase in growth rates, what we are hearing from corporate members of the chamber of commerce is that there are signs of more growth in China."
Although US companies investing in China are relatively optimistic about economic recovery, this report also shows that US companies still lack confidence in the opening of the Chinese market.
According to the report, 57 per cent of the companies surveyed expressed uncertainty or a lack of confidence in China's further opening of the market in the next three years.
At the same time, about one-third of the respondents pointed out that, compared with local Chinese companies, foreign-funded companies are subject to more unfair treatment, among which the technology and R&D industries have suffered more unfair treatment, while consumer companies said their treatment has improved.
In the past few years, China has taken a series of regulatory actions in various fields, which has affected the confidence of foreign-funded enterprises in operating and investing in China.
The report pointed out that 39 per cent of the companies surveyed stated that uncertainty about the future direction of such actions would apply to foreign-invested companies and a lack of transparency had led to increased uncertainty and concern at corporate headquarters, which in turn affected their operations. Confidence and willingness to invest in China. (ANI/CNA)