BEIJING, June 21 (Xinhua) -- The Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China on Wednesday unveiled a white paper, saying that in the next one to two years, Japanese enterprises in China which are ready to expand their business and maintain the status quo account for 48.3 percent and 44.3 percent, respectively.
According to the 21st Century Business Herald, the white paper quoted results of the survey conducted by the Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) at the end of 2017.
"In the context of China's economic stability, Japanese enterprises have great expectations for the Chinese market and hope to expand the scale of their business in China," said Takeo Donoue, head of the JETRO Beijing Office.
“The Chinese government has indicated that it wants to further open up to the outside world and has made relevant policy arrangements, including the continuation of the establishment of free trade pilot zones, will further enhance the investment intention of the Japanese companies in China if these policies can be implemented smoothly," Takeo Donoue added.
The Japanese companies are very concerned about the related policies and development trends under the Belt and Road Initiative and hope that companies from the two countries can cooperate in third-party markets. This will not only enable them to achieve a win-win situation, but also bring peace and prosperity to the region and the world, said Hirai Yasuteru, president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry in China.
According to data from the Ministry of Commerce (MOC), Japan invested 3.27 billion U.S. dollars in China in 2017, an increase of 5.1 percent year on year, reversing the downward trend for four consecutive years.
It is more worth mentioning is that Japanese companies’ confidence in the Chinese market is gradually recovering.
According to JETRO's survey, it is expected that the Japanese companies that can make profits in China will exceed 70 percent in 2017, an increase of 5.9 percentage points year on year.
In terms of trade, Japan is China's second largest export destination country and second largest source of imports.
According to the MOC, in 2017, bilateral trade volume between China and Japan returned to the scale of 300 billion U.S. dollars, reaching 302.99 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 10.9 percent over the same period of the previous year. In the first quarter of this year, the bilateral trade volume between the two countries reached 75.73 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 10.1 percent year on year. (Edited by Hu Pingchao, hupingchao@xinhua.org)