Foreign firms interested in FTZs

Foreign firms have increasingly treated China as a major market instead of a manufacturing base, the American Chamber of Commerce in South China said in its 2015 White Paper on the Business Environment in China released Monday.

About 79.3 percent of participants reported that their primary business focus was providing goods or services to the Chinese market, while only 20.7 percent reported a primary focus of manufacturing for export, the paper said.

Meanwhile, 44.4 percent of participants reported interest in investing in the newly announced free trade zones (FTZs)located in South China, it said.

Top challenges that participants expect to face in 2015 include regulatory issues, local competition, rising labor costs, lack of qualified managerial and specialist talent as well as foreign competition.

The paper is based on a survey of 275 companies, with most being foreign-invested.