China still land of opportunity: the Caterpillar story

Chen views the restructuring as a good thing and expects the process to continue in the next three to five years, but insists Caterpillar is still optimistic on China's economy in the long run.

"The restructuring and reforms will inevitably weigh down on growth, but once they are completed, more growth opportunities will come," he said, noting that Caterpillar wants to see sustainable, quality growth even though it's at a slower rate of 6-7 percent. "We hope China sticks to this restructuring and reform process."

Despite an industrial glut, Caterpillar is targeting China's huge need to upgrade infrastructure.

The government's efforts to boost the service sector, such as newly announced measures to support financial leasing, will benefit Caterpillar, as the move reduces the financing costs for Chinese firms that need Caterpillar's products.

The Belt and Road Initiative, China's proposal to build extensive trade and infrastructure networks with other countries, will also be a great boon for Caterpillar's construction equipment sales, Chen said.

Moreover, the company has seen promising growth in energy and transportation as it taps into growing demand from Chinese clients for cleaner, more efficient power generators and engines, Chen told Xinhua.

Sales in that sector recorded average annual growth of 11 percent over the past five years, according to Caterpillar data.

And it's not all about sales within China. Increasingly, the country has become a production and research base for Caterpillar to export globally.

There are plenty of new opportunities in China, Chen said, and the question is just how to grasp them.

"Foreign firms cannot blame the government every time they face difficulties doing business here. Sometimes they should reflect on themselves to see whether they really understand the policies and customers and can keep costs low enough," Chen said.

Still welcomed

Having worked at Caterpillar for 21 years, Chen told Xinhua that government support has been a key condition for the company's expansion.

"We're welcomed here, that's the general feeling," he said.Chen is confident that China will not back off in its support for foreign firms, as they are already a pillar of the economy.

The government halved the number of industries where foreign investment is restricted earlier this year. It also rolled out a draft law on foreign investment that, if passed, will replace the cumbersome case-by-case approval system with a "negative list" system, which will automatically allow investment in sectors not included on the list.

Such measures have already been implemented in the country's newly launched four pilot free trade zones, boosting the number of newly-established foreign firms there.

In the first eight months of this year, over 16,800 foreign-funded enterprises were established in China, up 10.7 percent year on year, and foreign direct investment increased 9.2 percent.

In a latest move to bet on China by U.S. firms, beverage giant Coca Cola announced in August it will invest $4 billion into its China operations over the next three years, compared with a total investment of 9 billion U.S. dollars between 1979 and 2014.

China has been deepening reforms, Chen said, while also noting that more could be done and it could be done more quickly.

He sees huge benefits in a prospective US-China bilateral investment treaty, which is on the agenda of Chinese President Xi Jinping's ongoing state visit to the United States.

Chen hopes Xi's visit will boost relations between the two countries, which is in the interests of US firms in China like Caterpillar.

"The US and China have some differences of opinion, but they are mostly about ideology. Their differences have less weight than their cooperation," he said.

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