Investors from Holland chase host of glittering opportunities

Funds from small European nation focus on high-tech industry sectors

China's push to improve an open market - ensuring free and inclusive global trade and sharing the benefits with other countries - will attract more investments from the Netherlands in the long run.

The funding will go especially into the chemical, agricultural and manufacturing sectors, according to leading businesspeople and academics.

The opportunities come from the Chinese government's ongoing reforms to build a new economic cycle in the country. It has set goals to further improve the market and policy environment for foreign direct investment, leading to "higher quality" foreign capital.

"Biomedicines, new materials, high-end equipment, and science and technology services will be the hot areas for businesses from the Netherlands to invest in China in the next stage, as the Asian country experiences a diversification of its innovative economic structure and an acceleration of industrial upgrading," said He Jingtong, a business professor at Nankai University in Tianjin.

The industrial materials division of Royal DSM, a Dutch life and materials sciences company, found novel ways to increase the mileage and quality of battery-powered vehicles in China this year.

By working closely with Chinese manufacturers and related electric vehicle industry associations, DSM Engineering Plastics, or DEP, calculated that if electric vehicles are built using lightweight yet sturdy materials, they can travel longer distances.

"With conventional vehicles, most of the time we look at the heat resistance of materials. But now, we concentrate more on the flame retardant and insulation performances of batteries and new requirements for emerging applications," said Zhang Zhenyu, commercial director of DEP for China.

Lighter electric cars also improve the endurance of batteries, he said. DEP has responded to the opportunities by increasing capacity.

Another Dutch company on the move in China is AkzoNobel, a multinational that manufactures paints and performance coatings and produces specialty chemicals for both industry and consumers worldwide.

It says it expects its business growth in the Chinese market to "maintain the current momentum" in the coming years.

China is one of the company's most important markets, as it accounts for approximately 12 percent of its total revenue each year, said Lin Liangqi, president of AkzoNobel China.

"We are benefiting from China's economic growth," Lin said. "We have been growing at double-digit rates in the past decade," he added, without providing a specific figure.

Zhao Ying, a researcher at the Beijing-based Institute of Industrial Economics, said traditional and other fast-growing industries - such as green technology, high-end consumption, food safety, healthcare, natural resources, chemicals, engineering contracting, agriculture and service businesses - would continue to remain attractive fields for investment from the Netherlands.

zhongnan@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 02/08/2018 page7)