Economic Watch: Global companies upbeat about China’s open business environment

This photo taken on Aug. 29, 2024 shows a store of AEON MALL, a Japanese shopping center operator, in Xiqing District in north China’s Tianjin Municipality. (Xinhua)
TIANJIN, Aug. 29 (Xinhua) — As a landmark of Tianjin’s shopping circle, the iconic blue-and-yellow three-story IKEA store draws many families looking for home design inspiration.
IKEA retail store entered north China’s Tianjin Municipality in 2012 and opened the second store in 2019. At the end of last year, its largest full-category customer distribution center in China was established in Tianjin. The world-renowned Swedish furniture and home furnishings retailer has achieved rapid growth in Tianjin in just over a decade.
“Chinese consumers’ demand for a better daily life along with IKEA gives the impetus for sustainable development. We tried to be a ‘good neighbor’ for the local customers,” said Sunny Xia, the local marketing manager of IKEA Tianjin.
According to IKEA Tianjin fiscal year 2024 data, the customer flow of its two retail stores increased by 20 percent year-on-year. With a population of over 13.6 million by the end of 2023, the megacity has more than 2.23 million IKEA members.
Tianjin played an important role in advanced manufacturing, shipping, finance and many other areas, in recent years, as part of the national strategy of the coordinated development of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region. As numerous multinational giants set their sights on Tianjin, the city has unleashed its strong magnetic force for foreign investment.
AEON MALL, located in the Xiqing District and only 1 km away from IKEA, also enjoyed a strong momentum of development. After its expansion in 2022, the mall attracted more internationally renowned brands. In this July, the mall’s visitor flow increased by 113 percent year-on-year.
“The consumption capacity of Chinese market was increasing these years. Chinese customers had a higher demand for quality. All of these attracted us to continue to increase our investment in China,” said Sato Norimasa, managing director of AEON MALL (China) Business Management Co, Ltd.
As Japan’s most prominent shopping center operator, the company entered Tianjin in 2010 and opened four stores in just seven years.
“Tianjin is an important economic center in northern China. It is also an important fulcrum of the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei urban cluster. The consumer market here benefited not only the local area, but also the surrounding cities. The huge potential attracted multinational retailers and high-end brands to take root and develop here,” Sato said.
As foreign companies established themselves in Tianjin, many international products were produced and marketed locally rather than being imported into China.
The MILKANA cheese was neatly displayed on the shelves of the supermarkets inside AEON MALL. The cheese, which is very popular among Chinese customers, was produced by BSI (Tianjin) Food Co., Ltd., a wholly-owned enterprise of the French dairy giant Savencia Group established in Tianjin.
Various cheese products were produced and packaged on the production line at the company’s production workshop in Tianjin Economic-Technological Development Area, before being transported to sales points across the country.
After more than 20 years of development in Tianjin, the BSI factory has expanded twice, with more than 20 production lines.
“China has a huge consumer base and complete commercial supporting facilities. The open minds of Chinese customers and their pursuit of high-quality food provide a lot of business opportunities for the enterprises, allowing us to find new growth points in the Chinese market,” said Christine Pan, the general manager of Savencia Group – BSI.
According to data from the Tianjin Commission of Commerce, more than 290 Fortune Global 500 companies have invested in Tianjin.
In the first half of this year, Tianjin actually used 3.16 billion U.S. dollars in the foreign capital, and the tax revenue from foreign-funded enterprises increased by 15.2 percent, accounting for 34.6 percent of the city’s total.
Today, Tianjin has played an important role in the Beijing-Tianjin-Hebei region and is also closely related to the hinterland of north and northwest China. The city has established trade relations with more than 500 ports in more than 180 countries and regions.
Based on its unique geographical advantages and the policy support, Tianjin made efforts to create a more international and fashionable consumption environment with high level of opening-up.
“Tianjin will promote the development of cross-border trade and investment with a higher level of opening up. It will help Tianjin to continuously gather the international consumption resources and effectively drive the high-quality development of the vast hinterland,” said Cong Yi, vice president of Tianjin Administrative Institute. ■

This photo shows a store of IKEA, a Swedish furniture and home furnishings retailer, in Xiqing District in north China’s Tianjin Municipality, Aug. 3, 2024. (Xinhua)