Page 8 - Doing Business in China

GENERAL INFORMATION

With a long history of over 5,000 years and a China is also a member of numerous formal and
population of more than 1�4 billion people, China is informal multilateral organisations, including the
one of the largest countries in the world, covering WTO , APEC , BRICS , the Shanghai Cooperation
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9�6 million square kilometres of land area and 4�7 Organisation (SCO), the BCIM and the G-20 � China
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million square kilometres of territorial waters� is considered a major regional power in Asia, and is
seen by some as a potential superpower�
China officially recognises 56 distinct ethnic
groups, the largest of which are the Han people, Due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, China’s
who make up about 92% of the total population� FDI growth slowed but remained steady in 2022�
Ethnic minorities, e�g� Manchurians, Uighurs, According to statistics released by the Ministry of
Tibetans and Koreans, make up about 8% of China’s Commerce, China’s actual use of foreign capital
population� There are 292 living languages in China, reached RMB 1�2 trillion, up 6�3% from the previous
including Mandarin, which is spoken by 70% of the year� Although the growth slowed down from the
native population, and various dialects such as 14�9% in 2021 , China’s FDI remained at a high level
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Shanghainese, Cantonese, and Hokkien� thanks to an improving business environment
and a mass consumption market� As China enters
into a new post-Covid era, the government has
ECONOMY promised to make great efforts to attract and
utilise foreign investment� Both state and local
China has been the world’s largest and most governments have announced measures to attract
complex economy for the past two thousand foreign investments, include expanding market
years, and has experienced cycles of prosperity access, opening up modern service sectors such
and decline during that time� Since the introduction as telecommunication, internet, finance, education,
of economic reforms in 1978 , China has become and culture, ensuring national treatment and
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one of the fastest growing major economies in improving services for foreign investors, optimising
the world� In 2001, China formally joined the World foreign investment in manufacturing sector by
Trade Organisation� Currently the world’s second attracting companies with high-technology,
largest economy, China’s gross domestic product research and development, modern logistics, new
(GDP) reached USD 18 trillion in 2022, increasing and green energy, and facilitating the launch of
by 3% year-on-year� At the same time, China has landmark foreign-funded projects�
successfully maintained a low inflation rate� The
country is also the world’s largest exporter and As a measure to further open up market access
second largest importer of goods� to foreign investors, China and Singapore have
announced to upgrade bilateral relations to an all-
Like many other Asian countries, China has seen its round high-quality future-oriented partnership
foreign reserves exceed their optimal level in recent during Singapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien
years� According to China’s State Administration of Loong’s visit to China in April 2023� The upgraded
Foreign Exchange, the country’s foreign reserves free trade agreement (FTA) will improve market
reached USD 3�18 trillion at the end of March 2023, access for each other’s business and enhance
surpassing Japan as the country with the highest higher-quality cooperation� It also marks China’s
foreign reserves in the world� first FTA made with dual opening-up commitments
in both services and investments under the
negative list approach� 6

1 https://www.wto.org 4 https://g20.org/en/
2 https://www.apec.org 5 http://www.mofcom.gov.cn/
3 http://infobrics.org 6 https://www.globaltimes.cn/page/202304/1288421.shtml

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