New policies set to bring more capital, tech, talent and manufacturing capacities to China

Global life sciences company Cytiva is expanding its Fast Trak center in Shanghai with an investment of around $8 million to tap China's rapidly growing biopharma industry.

Yu Lihua, general manager of Cytiva China, the local unit, said the company hopes to introduce advanced technologies in China and further its integration into the country's supply chains that are characterized by strong resilience and flexibility.

Cytiva's China strategy is a testament to the trend of an increasing number of foreign companies funneling more and more resources into the country. It is a trend that is increasing China's weight in foreign companies' global industrial and supply systems.

Just how important China has become to foreign companies can be gauged from Cytiva's upgraded Fast Trak center, which covers 11,000 square meters and will offer high-end manufacturing services to its customers. This is expected to accelerate the standardization, digitalization and scalable development of the biopharma industry, which makes medicines using biological sources like yeast and bacteria.

Cytiva has also launched a series of new solutions to meet market demand for process design and manufacturing in China, while forging new partnerships with local enterprises such as OriCell Therapeutics and Foster Bio.

A report submitted to the opening session of the 20th National Congress of the Communist Party of China said the country will quicken efforts to foster a new pattern of development with focus on both the domestic economy and positive interplay between domestic and international economic flows.

China will raise total factor productivity, and make industrial and supply chains more resilient and secure, the report stated.

The industrial landscape will be modernized, with measures underway to advance new industrialization, which will boost China's strength in manufacturing, product quality, aerospace, transportation, cyberspace and digital development, the report said.

Experts said foreign investors are integrating deeper into China's complete industrial chain and resilient supply chain, against a backdrop of growing uncertainties and complexities in the global economy.

China's prominence in global industrial and supply chains will continue to grow, as the country advances high-level development and opens up still wider to the rest of the world to remain increasingly attractive to foreign investors, they said.

Visitors listen to executives from German company Merck introducing bioconvergence during the fifth CIIE on Nov 6. CHINA DAILY

China has recently adopted a series of new moves to better attract foreign investment, which include revising the catalog of industries for encouraging foreign investment and rolling out 15 new measures to promote foreign investment in the manufacturing sector.

"Recent data have again showed foreign investors are investing more in China," said Wei Jianguo, vice-chairman of the China Center for International Economic Exchanges.

He predicted capital, technologies, manufacturing capacities and talent will all flow into China at an accelerated pace, especially as the global industrial and supply chains are crimped due to factors like geopolitical conflicts.

According to the Ministry of Commerce, the actual use of foreign capital in the Chinese mainland expanded 14.4 percent year-on-year to 1.09 trillion yuan ($152 billion) during the first 10 months of the year.

The country not only has a huge and growing consumer market, but also provides the best mix of advanced manufacturing infrastructure, efficient logistics and high-quality skilled workers, said a report released in May by the Chief Investment Office of Switzerland-based investment bank UBS.

German agricultural and healthcare group Bayer AG said it has always been active in expanding local networks and partnerships, and strengthening its strategic collaborations with local industry partners to establish deeper and more lasting roots in China.

Over the years, the company has established a powerful local cooperation network encompassing research and development, production, sales, services, and public education.

During the recently concluded fifth China International Import Expo, the company signed some agreements and also launched some products. It established partnerships with new allies and renewed cooperation with old ones.

Among that was an investment agreement between Bayer Crop Science and Qiantang district of Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, where a new supply center will be built.

With an investment of more than 300 million yuan, the new supply center is planned to be operational by 2025. It will further meet the demand for innovative, efficient and green crop protection products in China and across the Asia-Pacific region.