BEIJING (AP) – China needs to better protect trade secrets and fairly enforce business rules to ensure European investment and hiring at a time when Chinese leaders are trying to foster a more innovative economy, the biggest European business group in China said Wednesday.
Optimism about continued profitability is waning and nearly a quarter of European companies doing business in China plan to cut staff, according to an annual survey by the European Chamber of Commerce.
China’s economy, the world’s second biggest, has slowed from double-digit growth as it tries to reduce overreliance on trade and industrial investment. Its likely 7 percent growth rate this year is still much higher than developed economies such as Japan, Germany and the United States.
To ensure continued European participation during China’s economic slowdown and its “paradigm shift” toward more value-added industries, the government must more uniformly enforce business rules without unduly targeting foreigners, improve Internet access and guarantee protection of intellectual property, the European Chamber said.
Only a quarter of the 541 European companies surveyed have research and development centers in China, and among those the focus is primarily on how to localize products for the Chinese market rather than developing new technology that could be vulnerable to theft.