Trade protectionism is on the rise. How should China respond to foreign investment?

CCTV News, Beijing, February 9 According to the Economic Voice's "CNR Financial Review", this morning, the Ministry of Commerce held a regular press conference to provide a centralized response to issues of recent media concern. Sun Jiwen, spokesperson of the Ministry of Commerce, said that in 2017, the world economic recovery will be weak, and it is expected that my country's foreign direct investment will show a steady and slowing down trend, while slowing down and improving. A reporter from Economic Voices reported on the details of the press conference.

At today's press conference, Ministry of Commerce spokesperson Sun Jiwen introduced the development of the online retail market and the automobile market, as well as the promotion of the reform, innovation and development of "time-honored brands". At the same time, he also responded to some questions.

In terms of online retail, in 2016, my country's online retail transaction volume reached 5.16 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 26.2%. Among them, the online retail transaction volume of physical goods was 4.19 trillion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 25.6%, which was 15.2 percentage points higher than the total retail sales of consumer goods in the same period. In addition, some new features have emerged in online retail. For example, large e-commerce companies no longer compete on price, but rely on products and services to compete. There are also small e-commerce companies in maternal and infant, fresh food, cross-border, fashion and other fields, which have launched differentiated competition.

Regarding the automobile market, Sun Jiwen said that in 2016, my country's automobile sales market once again experienced double-digit growth. In 2016, automobile sales reached 28.028 million units, a year-on-year increase of 13.7%. It has ranked first in the world for eight consecutive years and set a new record high. New energy vehicles are developing rapidly, with annual sales exceeding 500,000 units, a year-on-year increase of 53%, surpassing the United States and becoming the first in the world.

Regarding the reform, innovation and development of time-honored brands, Sun Jiwen said that in the next step, the Ministry of Commerce will be committed to making national brands shine, promoting time-honored enterprises to actively introduce social capital, combining traditional business methods with modern technological means, such as the Internet, the Internet of Things, big data, etc., to implement the Chinese time-honored brand protection and development project, establish and improve time-honored brand archives, and stimulate the ability of time-honored brands to innovate independently.

Recently, there have been some hot spots in the field of foreign trade and commerce, and the Ministry of Commerce has also responded. For example, there are media reports and institutional analysis that the “One Belt, One Road” plan or ongoing projects may not be able to realize benefits. Sun Jiwen said that in 2016, my country’s direct investment in 53 countries along the “Belt and Road” was US$14.53 billion, accounting for 8.5% of the total investment in the same period. The value of new contracts signed by Chinese enterprises with relevant 61 countries reached US$126.03 billion, accounting for 51.6% of the value of newly signed contracts for foreign contracting projects during the same period, and the completed turnover was US$75.97 billion, accounting for 47.7% of the total during the same period. Some key projects have started construction, and some projects are progressing smoothly. Sun Jiwen said that in the short term, projects related to the Belt and Road Initiative require large capital investments, long construction cycles, and slow cost recovery, but in the long term, they are of great significance to infrastructure interconnection and benefiting the people of countries along the routes.

In addition, regarding the situation of China's overseas investment in 2017, Sun Jiwen said that in 2017, the world economic recovery will be weak. It is expected that China's overseas direct investment will show a trend of stabilization, slowing down, and improvement. China will continue to support enterprises' "authentic and compliant" overseas investment.