Tom Hoogendijk / Chairman Benelux Chamber of Commerce

Q: How has the COVID-19 pandemic affected China's FDI policies and opportunities?

We see that the big players that have already been investing in China that have were already present China they continue to invest. But we also saw that especially during those last 2 years of COVID in 2020 2021 that very few new players have actually invested in China.

And I think at the end of the day even use projects we talk about foreign direct investments, it is very similar to consumer behavior and consumer confidence and when you cannot actually go to a side or a city or an initial area yourself to check it out, I think this is not very good for the investors consumer confidence into specific countries.

So unfortunately that has been a very very difficult last 3 years in COVID for investors

Q: Can you discuss China's past FDI development and how it has impacted the country's economy?

From the early 90s until now, I think China has been very successful in becoming a very very highly efficient country and creating very highly efficient value chains. It's a whole value chain that is existing in China that they have started to building, they start to build that in the early 90s. All the way up to now over 30 years of this value chain development has let that China became a place that is very difficult to be like to be imitated anywhere else in the world.

So it's both the volume it's the efficiency the predictability, and also the skills of economy in China made sure that the merchandise of the market has made it a very interesting place for foreign companies including companies from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg.

Q: What advice would you give to European companies looking to expand their business in China?

I have three advice. The first advice is do your homework. So as we said before the Chinese market is offering many many opportunities but this is not the world west anymore. It's not going to be very easy or very quick to actually seize those opportunities you have to prepare accordingly through market resources to see if China is right market for your company or your products, or how you should adapt your company score product or service to make it suitable for the Chinese market.

My second advice would be try to find the right partners in China. There are many European companies that have been successful through joint ventures with very very stoned Chinese partners. At the end of the story there are many Chinese companies that have been well operating in China for many years, they have local knowledge and the distribution network. So finding the right partner whether that being in a joint venture or finding the right distributors, finding the right marketing providers, finding the right promoters is essential especially if you just enter the market for the first time.

Then my third advice would be become a member of the Benelux chamber. We actually have a wide range of network of companies from the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, that have been doing in China business from many years. I feel knowledge is a very important factor to your success and we can basically give new members that are willing to come to China despite the more challenging environment. And I'm sure as a chamber we open them with open arms and I'm very glad to see new faces and new companies and new projects from our Benelux countries here in China again. So that's something we are all very much forward to and we welcome everyone to visit us here in Beijing China.