Guangdong's private firms boost foreign investment

Private enterprises in Guangdong province are showing greater enthusiasm for investing overseas, motivated by increasing opportunities arising from the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a report.

Such enterprises, in fact, have gradually become the new force of Guangdong's outbound investment, it said.

The percentage of overseas registered wholly owned subsidiaries and joint-stock enterprises (institutions) set up by private enterprises began to rise in 2011, from 87.9 percent to 95.4 percent in 2015, the report shows.

The findings, jointly compiled by Guangdong provincial information office, the Research Center of State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission and Guanghua School of Management of Peking University, were published on Wednesday at the 21st Century Maritime Silk Road Forum on International Communication and Chinese (Guangdong) Companies Going Global in Zhuhai.

Investment in economies along the route of the Belt and Road Initiative grew significantly, making them the new favorite investment destinations for Guangdong enterprises.

Actual foreign investment in Belt and Road economies expanded 44.7 percent year-on-year in 2015, 33.8 percentage points higher than the provincial average, said the report.

Growth of investment in Indonesia, Vietnam, India and Pakistan amounted to more than 100 percent on an annual basis in the same year. Investment in Indonesia, for example, reached $134 million in 2015, representing a four-fold increase from the previous year.

As of the end of 2016, 8,957 non-financial enterprises were set up in more than 100 countries and regions by Guangdong enterprises. Among them, 884 were established through agreements with Belt and Road economies.

Shenzhen-based telecommunication giant ZTE Corporation, for example, is providing 3G and 4G mobile network services in more than 50 economies that are part of the Belt and Road Initiative.

Zhuhai-based home appliance company Gree Electric Appliances set up a plant in Pakistan, offering nearly 3,000 jobs for local people and providing $6 million in tax a year.

"Enterprises in Guangdong province are actively participating in Belt and Road Initiative and pursuing overseas markets, which not only promotes their transformation and upgrade, but also instills new energy into Guangdong's open economy," Zhang Jincheng, an official of SASAC research center, said.

"It will also promote economic and social development of those host economies by helping them improve infrastructure, increase employment and upgrade technologies."