Since this year, Sichuan's high-tech industries have utilized more and more foreign funds, and the driving effect of investment attraction has become increasingly obvious. Recent statistics from the Ministry of Commerce showed that from January to August this year, Sichuan's high-tech manufacturing industry received the foreign direct investment (FDI) of 297 million U.S. dollars, up 383.24% year on year, which is 340.14 percentage points higher than the national growth; the province's high-tech service industry received the FDI of 958 million U.S. dollars, with a year-on-year increase of 63.87%, which is 32.87 percentage points higher than the national growth.
Airbus aircraft entire lifecycle service project in Chengdu has moved forward rapidly. With a total investment of not less than 6 billion yuan, the contract was signed in January, the design plan was finalized in May, and the construction started in July 2022. News of the major industrialization project attracted by Sichuan this year is just coming in. The project will be delivered upon completion in the second half of 2023. At that time, as the first aircraft entire lifecycle service project of Airbus outside Europe, it will open a new model of green circular economy for aircraft and fill the blank area at the end of China's aviation industry chain.
Attracting major industrialization projects helps promote industrial transformation and upgrading. Since the beginning of this year, Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Economic Cooperation has closely followed the layout of the province's manufacturing industry, focused on the leading industries such as electronic information, equipment manufacturing, biomedicine and advanced materials, as well as the weak links of industrial chains, and made every effort to carry out the 100-day investment attraction campaign (season 2) for the manufacturing industry. It has vigorously promoted the signing and implementation of high-quality, high-tech and high-output projects, driving the accelerated development of those industries. From January to August, Sichuan introduced 183 new foreign-funded projects in high-tech industries, with remarkable results.
Sichuan Provincial Bureau of Economic Cooperation has deepened the Special Service Action for Foreign Investment, actively participated in the revision of the catalog of industries in which foreign investment is encouraged , comprehensively improved the service level, focused on leading enterprises, manufacturing industry and technological innovation, and promoted the accelerated implementation of key foreign-funded projects, as well as the development and strengthening of foreign-invested enterprises in Sichuan. It has successfully facilitated the commencement of construction on such projects as Airbus aircraft entire lifecycle service project in Chengdu and the lithium battery materials project of Albemarle Corporation, the United States with an annual output of 50,000 tons of lithium hydroxide, and supported 129 foreign-funded enterprises such as Chengdu Monolithic Power Systems, Inc. and Mianyang Pulse Electronics Co., Ltd. to increase the investment by 1.483 billion U.S. dollars.
Sichuan has actively encouraged foreign-funded enterprises to set up R&D centers, and has approved the list of the first foreign-funded R&D centers in Sichuan to enjoy the import tax policy of supporting scientific and technological innovation during the 14th Five-Year Plan period. We have continuously implemented the 10 measures for advancing opening-up in detail, and granted financial awards and subsidies to major foreign-funded manufacturing projects, as well as headquarters, R&D centers and other functional institutions of multinational corporations.
