US companies eye service, energy and high-tech sectors

"If foreign companies felt more confident that they would be treated equally from a regulatory standpoint, and if they felt they had better insight into the government's decision-making process, I am fully confident that we would see investment growth rapidly across China," said Tim Wen, the chamber's treasurer.

The report discovered strong reinvestment numbers across the board. Most participants reported investing more than they had originally budgeted for over the course of 2014.

"Although the total investment amount from chamber member companies have seen nearly a 10-percent decline from historic highs last year, we estimate that they stand to reinvest profits amounting to more than $12 billion in 2015 and more than $13.8 billion between 2015 and 2017," Seyedin said.

As has been the case in the past several years, AmCham South China expects one key area of investment to be human resources. More than 83 percent of polled participants reported having hired new employees to take advantage of the labor market. It estimated that this has led to the creation of 534,000 new jobs in China.

"As China moves up the value chain amid the new normal of slower, quality growth, the progress has reshaped many of global companies' business policies and investment strategies," said Zou Dongtao, director of the China Institute for Development and Reform at the Central University of Finance and Economics in Beijing.

Zou said the development of modern agriculture, new energy vehicles, aero-engines, green construction, high-end machinery, hydropower and wind power in China can benefit international firms as they are proficient in using green and high-tech technologies.