Multinational enterprises are unwaveringly committed to the Chinese market and will keep investing in China, as the country's pursuit of high-quality development and Chinese modernization is set to provide increasing development opportunities for them, according to top business executives and experts.

The Chinese market has provided a conducive environment for multinational enterprises' growth. As it steps up efforts to expand high-level opening-up, increasing business potentials are unfolding for foreign investors, especially those in high-tech and advanced manufacturing like the electronics, healthcare, and life science, they said.

Allan Gabor, president of Merck China, said that he believes in the marvelous "China speed" and the country's growth momentum which is driven by the unremitting efforts to embrace high-quality development through a Chinese path to modernization.

Over the last decade, Merck has invested nearly 6 billion yuan ($820 million) in China. Today, China is the company's second-largest market worldwide with approximately 3 billion euros ($3.18 billion) in sales last year.

Merck invested about 70 million euros to expand its Nantong Life Sciences Center in Jiangsu province and to increase its high-purify reagent production capacity, which is expected to be operational by 2026.

It has also announced the "Level Up" growth plan to further invest at least 1 billion yuan in China by 2025 to enhance localized manufacturing, technology, and supply chain capabilities in electronics sector.

"Despite the uncertainties and challenges in the post-pandemic era, China insists on embracing foreign direct investment and is continuously rolling out measures and policies that facilitate multinational companies to deepen their footprint in this country. In my opinion, that practical approach is the precious certainty in an uncertain world," he said.

"In its unique path of modernization, China has increasing needs in areas of healthcare, high-quality food and drugs, solutions on environmental protection, and a digital economy, where Merck is in a sweet spot to continuously contribute with our innovative products and services," he added.

Will Song, global senior vice-president and China chairman at Johnson & Johnson, said that the Chinese market is increasingly becoming an important growth engine and innovation hub in Johnson & Johnson's global business portfolios and Johnson & Johnson's long-term commitment to the Chinese market remains unchanged.

"We continue to invest in innovation to lead and support the high-quality development of the healthcare industry. We are pleased to see that China strives to create a first-class business environment that is market-oriented, rule-of-law and internationalized, making greater efforts to attract foreign investment, and continuing to promote high-level opening up," Song said.

"We believe that China's high-quality economic development will bring multifaceted opportunities for multinational enterprises, and we look forward to China's further opening-up and continuous emphasis and recognition of innovation value," he said.

"With its market size, economic resilience and population, China remains an important strategic market in Johnson & Johnson's global business portfolio, and we are here for the long-term," he added.

The number of newly established foreign-invested enterprises reached 37,814 in the first three quarters of 2023 in China, up 32.4 percent year-on-year, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Friday.

Structure and quality of the FDI has seen much improvement, despite foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland in terms of actual use dropped 8.4 percent year-on-year to 919.97 billion yuan over the period, the data showed.

The FDI used in China's manufacturing sector amounted to 262.41 billion yuan during the nine month period, with an increase of 2.4 percent on a yearly basis. High-tech manufacturing saw a remarkable growth of 12.8 percent year-on-year.

Justin Yifu Lin, dean of the Institute of New Structural Economics at Peking University, said that the Chinese economy, with strong endogenous strength from factors like an enormous domestic market and increasing innovation capability, is well poised to rebound and continuously have "dynamic" growth, making great contribution to the world economic development.

A former senior vice-president and chief economist of the World Bank, Lin expects the Chinese economy to grow by 5.5 percent, or even 6 percent, this year, and continue to be a major driver of global growth.

Leon Wang, executive vice-president of AstraZeneca and president of AstraZeneca China, said in a previous interview that AstraZeneca hopes to contribute to the high-quality development of the domestic economic cycle in China, one of the company's crucial strategic markets worldwide.

Going forward, AstraZeneca will further deepen its market presence in the country through its regional headquarters strategy while supporting local economic development and driving dual-circulation development, he said.

Zhang Fei, associate director of the Institute of Foreign Investment, which is part of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, said that she expects the Chinese government to make more moves to increase FDI inflows and improve FDI structure in manufacturing.

Sectors like automobile manufacturing, medical equipment, biomedicine, aerospace, chemicals and energy have great potential to boost FDI in China, she said.

By Liu Zhihua