| The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership(RCEP)officially entered into force on January 1,2022.At a time when global economic globalization is being challenged and the international environment is becoming increasingly complex,the establishment of the world’s largest free trade area will bring new impetus to the long-term development of the region and the growth of global trade and investment.Foreign direct investment(OFDI)is one of the important means for enterprises to make use of foreign advanced knowledge and technology,expand overseas markets and obtain resources.It is also an active measure for China to actively participate in the international division of labor and conform to the trend of economic globalization.It is worth noting that by the end of 2021,RCEP countries accounted for seven of the top 20 OFDI countries in China,and after the epidemic,investment in the region showed a strong trend of growth.Therefore,RCEP countries have become important destinations for China’s OFDI.At the same time,in order to encourage its enterprises to "go global",China pays special attention to the construction of investment facilitation in the negotiations of international organizations.Investment facilitation describes many factors related to investment,such as institutional environment,infrastructure quality and business environment,which will affect the location choice of China’s OFDI to a large extent.Therefore,studying the relationship between investment facilitation in RCEP and China’s OFDI location choice is of great practical significance for China to make full use of RCEP investment rules,encourage enterprises to invest in the region,and clarify the key areas of bilateral investment facilitation construction.This paper first reviews the relevant literature and theoretical basis of investment facilitation and OFDI location choice to explore the mechanism of investment facilitation’s influence on OFDI location choice.Secondly,it analyzes the current situation of China’s direct investment in RCEP countries,and then uses the principal component analysis method to estimate the investment facilitation level of RCEP countries.Finally,based on the panel data from 2009 to 2020,the FGLS data model is constructed to empirically analyze the relationship between the investment facilitation of RCEP and its indicators and the location choice of China’s OFDI.The empirical results show that:(1)The higher the level of investment facilitation in RCEP countries,the more likely it is to attract China’s OFDI.The conclusion remains valid after passing the endogeneity treatment and robustness test.(2)From the regression analysis of the first-level indicators of investment facilitation,the institutional environment,infrastructure quality,financial service level and scientific and technological innovation level of the host country have a significant positive impact on the location choice of China’s OFDI;The negative influence of business environment on location choice of China’s OFDI is not significant.(3)The impact of investment facilitation on China’s OFDI location choice is heterogeneous.Compared with developing countries,investment facilitation in developed countries has a more significant positive impact on China’s OFDI location choice,and the coefficient is larger.Based on the above conclusions,this paper puts forward the following suggestions: host countries can improve investment facilitation from the aspects of institutional environment,infrastructure quality,financial development,scientific and technological innovation,etc.The Chinese government should strengthen communication and coordination with other countries and take measures to encourage enterprises to "go global".When making foreign direct investment,Chinese enterprises should fully understand the investment facilitation of host countries and choose appropriate investment cooperation modes. |
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