ALLURING: Kunming International Trade Fair to attract more foreign investment (XINHUA)

When Dirk Moens, Secretary General of the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China (EUCCC), finished work recently on an annual business confidence survey, the results looked good for China. Nearly 80 percent of respondents were optimistic about the market growth outlook in China.

Around the same time, the World Bank released its own report. Like Moens' report, it covered one of the hot topics for the global business community: China's investment environment. But unlike the EUCCC, the World Bank gave China a low investment environment ranking.

The report, issued by International Finance Corp. (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group, assesses four areas of the investment environment in 87 countries and regions including China. The four indicators examine sector-specific restrictions on foreign equity ownership, the process of starting a foreign business, access to industrial land and commercial arbitration regimes. The results on China were less than satisfactory.

The report triggered a dispute and the waters were not calmed by the ensuing coverage by some Western media, who claimed that China's investment environment was worsening.

According to Zhao Jinping, a senior researcher with the Development Research Center of the State Council, the four indicators are inadequate to judge a country's investment environment. "The report just represents one perspective on the issue," he said. "Other indicators including logistics efficiency, labor costs and commodity prices should also be taken into account."

Dirk Moens, also an experienced businessman, echoed Zhao's comments. He said different countries have different management strategies.