(Yicai Global) Jan. 17 -- Foreign investment in China reached a historic high in the first 11 months of last year, as the country transforms from an important manufacturing base for overseas companies into a strategic location for developing and exporting new technologies worldwide, Yicai Global learned from a market insider.

China absorbed CNY1.15 trillion (USD169.91 billion) of foreign capital from January to November 2022, more than the whole of 2021, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce. Over that period, South Korean investment in the country more than doubled year on year, while that from Germany soared 52.6 percent, that from the UK surged 33.1 percent and that from Japan jumped 26.6 percent.

“China is not just one of Schneider Electric’s manufacturing bases and our second-largest market in the world, it is also a highly significant strategic region and the source of our innovation,” Lu Bin, senior vice president and chief strategy officer at the energy management business of the French digital automation company, told Yicai Global.

"Before, foreign firms would do their research and development overseas and manufacturing in China," Gao Shen, vice president of Schneider Electric and head of its China research institute, told Yicai Global. “However, this model has now changed and the company’s China R&D team is developing new products for its global business. And these products are being debuted in China, because business competition here is fiercer.”

Schneider Electric opened its Secure Power Innovation Lab in Shanghai on Jan. 12, a key milestone in the Rueil-Malmaison-based firm’s establishment of a ‘China hub.’

The Chinese market’s demands are tremendous and diversified, Lu said. Therefore, locating the R&D team in such a high-quality and open frontier as Shanghai can not only better meet local demands, but will also allow efficient interaction with global R&D teams to fulfill the firm’s mission of 'in China, for China and in China, for the world.'

High-tech industries are becoming the main engines attracting foreign capital. The actual use of foreign investment by Chinese high-tech companies jumped 31.1 percent from January to November year on year, with that of high-tech manufacturing sectors soaring 58.8 percent and that of high-tech services sectors jumping 23.5 percent, according to the latest data from the Ministry of Commerce.

On the same day that Schneider Electric’s Secure Power Innovation Lab started to operate, Bosch signed a USD1 billion contract to build a R&D and manufacturing facility for electric car core components and self-driving technology in Suzhou, eastern Jiangsu province. That day, Swire Coca-Cola’s CNY2 billion (USD295.5 million) project in Kunshan, which neighbors Suzhou, also got underway. And US cosmetic giant The Estée Lauder Companies opened its 12,000-square-meter China innovation and R&D hub in Shanghai last month.

Editors: Tang Shihua, Kim Taylor