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Crisis yet to dampen multinationals' investment enthusiasm

By Nie Peng (chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2008-11-13 12:02

In the eyes of the executives of some multinational corporations, China remains a haven that offers them both shelter against the financial storm and opportunities for further development.

China will continue to attract investment from multinational giants like Canon, DuPont and Siemens, the China Economic Times reported on Tuesday.

Despite the implications of the crisis, the multinationals will not change their investment plans in China and may even consider boosting their investment budgets and enhancing cooperation with China's domestic enterprises.

"DuPont supports China's future economic and social development direction. We'll continue to provide technology, techniques and solutions in environmental protection, security and sustainable development," said Li Qing, vice president of DuPont China Holding Company. "We plan to increase our total investment in China to $1.2 billion by 2010."

Hu Fen, general manager of 3M China said the company will further its indigenization strategy of "China creation" and may consider investment in the central and western areas in years to come.

3M China's Zhang Lihua told the newspaper, "3M won't cut its staff in China and plans to recruit more than 1,000 new employees next year."

On the sidelines of a recent high-level multinationals forum in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, executives of Canon, Honeywell and Siemens expressed their optimism about the China market.

Huang Song, vice president of Canon (China) Co, said China was the only market in the world where Canon saw a sales growth rate of 30 percent year-on-year.

Sun Dan, vice president of Honeywell (China) Co, said the company is now eyeing China's second-tier cities, and attaches great importance to the central and western regions. Considering that half of its products are related to energy conservation, the company sees many cooperative opportunities with China's home-grown companies in bringing its energy-saving system to the Chinese market, Sun said.

Liang Yiqiang, vice president of Siemens (China) Co said Siemens will persist in increasing its investment in China by 10 billion yuan ($1.46 billion) in the next few years as the company's Chinese business has been steadily growing.

Ke Xinghua, Procter & Gamble's Greater China business development general manager, told the Henan Daily recently that China is probably the best destination for global investment.

"Despite some implications of the financial crisis, P&G has no plans to slow its investment pace in China," Ke said. "On the contrary, the company is expanding investment by rolling out new products."