Chinese province invites overseas investors to link up with strategic supply chains
- Jiangsu, an eastern province of China and a major regional economy, has put out the call for overseas investment into strategic industries
- Participation would mean entry into sectors traditionally thought of as off-limits or otherwise strictly bound, symbolising greater openness
But analysts expressed concerns over the strategy’s long-term viability as geopolitical tensions intensify.
In a fresh batch of incentives for overseas capital, Jiangsu – China’s second-largest provincial economy after Guangdong – called for overseas participation in “strengthening, supplementing, and extending industrial chains.”
“Foreign-invested enterprises are encouraged to participate in open innovation and development across the entire biopharmaceutical industry chain, and to speed up the implementation of projects,” said the Jiangsu government in a document published last week.
For major projects worth more than US$100 million, it said, land use will be prioritised and visa services will be facilitated for executives, technical personnel and other individuals from foreign-invested enterprises and multinationals.
Foreign participation in the industrial value chain has been promoted by other localities, though in those cases their intentions were signalled less explicitly.
Jiangsu’s initiative … carries significant symbolic weight. It represents a proactive effort to retain foreign investment