American Chamber of Commerce in China survey shows 45 percent of firms ranked China as a top-three investment priority in their near-term investment plans. This marks a significant shift from 60 percent last year amid growing concerns over China’s policy uncertainties and bleak bilateral ties with the United States.
AmCham survey shows companies’ outlook for China is negative.
More than half of US firms say won’t be profitable in 2022.
U.S. companies are also more pessimistic about their financial outlook there, with more than half saying they didn’t turn a profit last year and more than a third saying their China revenue fell from a year earlier, according to the survey conducted by the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
China will continue to be a very important market for a whole host of sectors, especially when it comes to advanced manufacturing, says Michael Hart, the president of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
“There’s a lot of concerns about supply chains, and there’s a lot of concerns about United States-China relations. When you can have people come and have face-to-face meetings, people-to-people exchanges, that will really help,” said Mr Michael Hart, President of the American Chamber of Commerce in China.
Nicholas Burns, the US ambassador to China, told the American Chamber of Commerce in China early this month that both countries have a joint interest – and global responsibility – to work together on transnational challenges such as climate change.
“I think we all believe that Covid is now here and it’s spreading, and as you have more things open, it will spread faster,” said Michael Hart, president of the Beijing-based American Chamber of Commerce in China. “We assume it’s a pretty fluid situation, and there could be new rules to come in and try and clamp down if the spread is too rapid.”
“Today’s measures focused on the domestic environment; however, we would also like to see further relaxation of inbound travel restrictions, continuing the progress that has been made on that front earlier this year,” Colm Rafferty, chairman of AmCham China, said in a statement.
华刚林总结称，外资企业都是在中国的政策环境中寻求可预测性，政策的确定性和透明度是解决它们关切的关键:“我们认为，开放和可预测的市场，是促进中国和国际工商界取得更大成功和加强联系的最佳环境。
不过，部分行业仍对外资存在限制，如医疗卫生行业。在这些有潜在机会的领域，美国企业希望商会能够帮助提倡推动中国市场进一步开放，看到更多开放性的措施。