Chinese economists have mixed views on how the severe acute
respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak will affect the long-term,
strategic decisions of foreign investors in China.
Liu Pengfei, senior research manager with the Horizon Research
Group, said investors might begin to spread their investments in
medium-sized cities along the coast and the Yangtse River, forming
a T-shaped area, as well as former investment centers on the Pearl
River and Yangtze River deltas and areas around Beijing and
Tianjin.
Jin Bosheng, a researcher on foreign investment with the Ministry
of Commerce, said foreign investors would consider investing in
less populous central and western areas of China.
However, Zhao Jinping, a researcher with the Development Research
Center of the State Council, said central and western China were
unlikely to attract investment due to their under-developed
infrastructure and market scale, though SARS might bring more
investments there.
Liu said the public health sector would draw foreign investment,
but Jin insisted that the manufacturing industry, the exploitation
of natural resources, the high-tech industry and the environmental
protection industry would continue to attract investment because
the Chinese government would continue its encouraging policies
after the SARS crisis.
They agreed that mergers, which account for only five percent of
China's current foreign direct investment (FDI), would become the
major channel of FDI. However, this change was not initiated by
SARS, but by continuing opening up.
After the SARS crisis, the Chinese government would continue to
encourage foreign investors and China's FDI would maintain steady
growth, they said.
(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2003)