(Yicai Global) April 20 -- China is actively bringing overseas capital into its information and communications technology sector via constant improvement to its business environment, a recent joint report by German global management consultancy Roland Berger and France’s Emlyon Business School has concluded.

The country's digital economy has nearly doubled in five years to now make up almost 35 percent of its total gross domestic product.

Lured by a 7.3 percent profit margin in the domestic ICT sector, Chinese and overseas capital is streaming in and steadily investing in research and development. Domestic companies have shattered former monopolies, thus fostering market competition and drawing in overseas capital across the spectrum of the ICT sector.

Apple, Intel, Nokia and other overseas-funded firms have pitched in a great deal by investing, setting standards, training and R&D, and gained many opportunities in the country in the process, with an about 60 percent growth in their revenues from the local market over the last five years, per the report.

Apolitical Trade

China has stood aloof from the sporadic anti-globalization and trade protectionism that have cropped up in semiconductors and other areas, and still refuses to politicize business issues. It welcomes the participation of overseas companies and offers an open and level playing field. Its stance toward and practice of crafting a business environment are worthy of global emulation, the report added.

China actively tapped overseas-funded firms to help form industry standards to set up its fifth-generation network system, e.g. it invited US-based Qualcomm, Texas Instruments and Raytheon Technologies, Finland’s Nokia and South Korea’s SK Telecom and others to join in the TD-SCDMA -- time division synchronous code division multiple access -- Industry Alliance trade group to help formulate its standards, the report continued.

China applies a permissive list model to administer ICT products’ market access, with restricted sectors on the foreign investment negative (prohibited) list down to 40 last year from a former 48.

Construction of the 5G network, Internet of Things, Big Data, artificial intelligence, Industrial Internet, smart cities and other new infrastructure should be accelerated, Xu Kemin, director of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's department responsible for industrial policies and regulations, said on April 16, adding, key projects in the industrial and communications sectors should start and resume more quickly, while progress of key overseas capital-funded projects must be closely monitored.

Editor: Ben Armour