EU firms in China forced to focus on risks over business, lobby group says
Al Jazeera
More than half of respondents to survey say China’s business landscape has become more political.
European companies in China are overly focused on risk management amid a less predictable and more politicised business environment in the world’s second largest economy, a business lobby group has warned.
The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China said on Wednesday that about three-quarters of respondents to a survey of its 1,700 members had reviewed their supply chains and exposure in China over the past two years amid a “general sentiment of uncertainty”.
Some 21 percent of respondents said they planned to expand their production in China, while another 12 percent planned to reduce it, the chamber said.
Only 1 percent said they planned to move production out of China entirely, according to the survey.
The findings come “at a time when the global business environment is becoming increasingly politicised, and companies are having to make some very tough decisions about how, or in some cases if, they can continue to engage with the Chinese market,” the lobby group said in a report accompanying the survey.
