21 ASIAN LEGAL BUSINESS CHINA • 亚洲法律杂志-中国版 WWW.LEGALBUSINESSONLINE.COM/CHINA 2022, Chinese photovoltaic companies were more interested in investing in Southeast Asia. In March 2022, however, due to US anti-circumvention investigation of Chinese companies’ investments in Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and Vietnam, photovoltaic companies began to consider relocating to safer investment destinations. The timing coincided with closer exchanges between China and the Middle East, as a result of which many Chinese companies decided to move their factories in Southeast Asia to Saudi Arabia and other places in the Middle East,” explains Hou. Since this May, with the US announcing anti-dumping and antisubsidy investigations of photovoltaic cells from those four Southeast Asian countries, another group of Chinese photovoltaic companies have begun to relocate. “Because of the prior approval process from the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Commerce, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange and other agencies in China, these clients usually have very tight project schedules.” Apart from factors attributable to the Chinese side, social development needs in the Middle East constitute another driver. Ma Jun, director of Ning Ren Law Firm’s Beijing office, tells ALB that Saudi Arabia and the UAE have been promoting economic diversification in recent years. “To support Saudi Arabia’s 2030 development vision, sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East with Saudi Arabia as the core have been actively making industrial investments in China, hoping to attract high-quality Chinese companies to expand their Middle Eastern business. Examples include investment in NIO by CYNV, an investment firm backed by Abu Dhabi, and investment in Lenovo Group by Alat, a company of Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund.” According to Global SWF data cited by Reuters, from June 2023 to June 2024, Middle East sovereign wealth funds have invested $7 billion in China, a five-fold increase year-on-year. CAPTURING ALL INDUSTRIES As to what industry clients are most attracted by this round of investment in OUTBOUND INVESTMENT
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjA0NzE4Mw==