More foreign firms expand business in China in Q2: survey

An employee works at Schneider Electric Low Voltage (Tianjin) Co., Ltd. in Tianjin, north China, Feb. 25, 2020. (Xinhua/Li Ran)

BEIJING, July 30 (Xinhua) -- Foreign-funded companies in China remain upbeat about China's development prospects and market potential, with the vast majority maintaining or expanding their business scale in the second quarter, according to a recent survey.

About 72.5 percent of the 500-plus surveyed foreign enterprises maintained their business scale in the second quarter, up by 1.5 percentage points over the survey result in the first quarter, according to the report released by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade.

Some 18.5 percent saw business expansion in China, marking an increase of 2.1 percentage points over the result of the previous survey.

It also showed that foreign companies remain optimistic about their development prospects in China, with 11.2 percent reporting increased investment in the world's second-largest economy in the April-June period.

Over 40 percent of the surveyed foreign enterprises said they would choose southwest China's Chengdu and Chongqing as the main destination for investment, the report showed.