EU Chamber gives China's new foreign investment policy a positive outlook

Joerg Wuttke, president of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China, gave a positive preliminary take on China’s new foreign investment law, labelling it “surprisingly accommodating”.

Wuttke said the Chinese government wanted to attract more foreign investment as its economy slowed.

The law, which was set to take effect on 1 January, aimed to address complaints about forced technology transfer and a lack of protection for intellectual property.

Speaking last Friday, and on the basis of a preliminary reading of the country’s new foreign investment law, he said that “it is surprisingly accommodating to all concerns [...] we have.”

The law puts a strong emphasis on preventing Chinese entities from piling pressure on foreign companies to transfer valuable technology in order to be allowed to conduct business in China and on the protection of trade secrets.

Both issues lay at the heart of US-China trade tensions.

The changes followed US complaints that its technology companies were being treated unfairly by Beijing, with pressure being applied to force them to disclose intellectual property secrets to Chinese partners to gain access to the market.

“We are entering a phase of economic headwinds. These matters (improving the environment for foreign business in China) are of great importance to make sure foreign investors find China attractive,” Wuttke said.

“They are not in a position to throw major money at the economy as we speak,” he said.