On last January 2017, the Chinese central government has published an official document containing the new 20 guidelines aimed at boosting foreign direct investment in some sectors that lately had slightly declined. In particular, the document aims to give new sap to the economy through the encouragement of foreign direct investment (FDI) in manufacturing, services and infrastructure. Foreign firms will indeed be encouraged to participate in public tenders, through partnerships in the form of joint ventures with local companies. The attempt to attract more foreign direct investment goes through an unprecedented step: the government authorized provincial governments to launch projects that can attract investors for a value of $ 300 million in areas not included in the so-called negative list, which delimits the sectors in which foreign investment is not permitted. Foreign companies will also be entitled to participate in tenders for public contracts, provided that their products are made in China. According to the guidelines, foreign companies that invest in China by virtue of these new measures will be allowed to go public in Chinese regulated markets and issue bonds in order to diversify financing channels.

These actions clearly indicate that the government is not satisfied with the steady growth of FDI; official data in this respect show that the total value of these investments in 2016 reached the figure of 118 billion dollars, an increase of more than 4 per cent compared to 2015.

With new recently announced government policies, foreign companies will be encouraged to invest in high-end productions, including innovative technologies and green economy; the desire of the government is to encourage the creation of foreign R & D centres, and encourage the collaboration of these research centres with national counterparts.

The market seems to have already anticipated the government's moves. In fact, in the month of January, the German giant Siemens AG has opened an industrial plant at its Innovation Center in Wuhan, Hubei province. The project will provide for the cooperation with local companies for the construction of digitization laboratories, industrial hardware and software platforms.

The hope of the Chinese Government is therefore to create the right conditions for other large business realities worldwide so that they can emulate Siemens in the creation of innovative industrial centres.