Valls: Open arms to Chinese enterprises

Prime minister said reforms will attract more investment

In a speech on the second day of his visit to China, French Prime Minister Manuel Valls reassured Chinese entrepreneurs that his country welcomes their investment.

"I want to make this clear - France has opened its arms to Chinese enterprises," Valls said on Friday at Wangjing SOHO, a high-tech venture in northeastern Beijing that uses green technologies from French companies Dassault, Schneider Electric and Saint-Gobain.

He listed the efforts France has made to attract Chinese investors including the second France-China High-Level Financial Dialogue on Sep 15, 2014, as well as efforts to make Paris the offshore renminbi hub in Europe and France's support for negotiations between China and European Union on investment protection in early 2014.

Valls said French enterprises came to China long before China rose as the world's second-largest economy. There are now 1,500 French enterprises with more than 550,000 employees in the country, first among European countries in the number of employees in China.

Valls said the Chengdu Ecological Garden Project and Wuhan Sustainable Ecological New City Project are examples of the expertise and technology offered by French enterprises.

He also stressed long-awaited nuclear energy cooperation between France and China.

"I have proposed building a new partnership in energy cooperation in talks with Premier Li Keqiang and I hope the new partnership will enable us to cover the whole industrial chain," he added.

To create a better environment for foreign investors, Valls said France will implement new policies such as reducing public spending by 50 billion euros ($56.6 billion) before 2017, cutting taxes on enterprises by 40 billion euros and reforming the labor market.

Zhang Jinling, a researcher of French studies at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said factors that affect Chinese investors' enthusiasm for doing business in France include the industrial structure, laws and regulations, and labor costs.

"It's hard to tell which factor matters the most, but the absence of any one may affect Chinese investor confidence," Zhang said. "The French prime minister's speech was good, now we need to wait and see the outcome."

In his speech Valls again highlighted the trade imbalance between France and China. His nation's exports to China equal one-third of what they buy from China. The deficit in bilateral trade was the equivalent of more than 1 percent of France's GDP last year, he said.

Premier Li said he and Valls had agreed to further deepen China-France strategic mutual trust and accelerate cooperation in key areas including nuclear power, aviation and environmental protection.

"Economic ties between China and France remain the cornerstone of bilateral ties," Li said at a joint news conference with Valls after their meeting. "China is not purposely pursuing a trade surplus with France."

At the end of his speech, Valls again expressed his confidence in the bilateral partnership.

"France and China can achieve win-win progress through enhancing exchanges and we can further deepen our partnership," said the French prime minister.

Shen Tong contributed to the story.

chenmengwei@chinadaily.com.cn