China should eliminate barriers to investment faced by foreign firms, as well as promote the yuan’s internationalization and strengthen financial support for smaller companies, the European Chamber of Commerce’s Shanghai chapter wrote in its annual report published Tuesday.
Rising geopolitical tensions added to the uncertainty, and the amount of new utilized foreign direct investment in both November and December fell more than 20 percent below the same months in 2021, according to data from the Ministry of Commerce. Some EU firms actually ran contrary to those trends, with actually utilized FDI from the European Union rising about 92 percent in 2022, according to China’s Ministry of Commerce. However, much of that was likely due to a few big investments by German car and chemical manufacturers early in the year.