ExxonMobil Chairman and CEO Darren Woods (l) and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang (r)

China will further open up to the outside world and improve its business environment while welcoming foreign companies, including those from the United States, Premier Li Keqiang said when meeting with a delegation from U.S. company ExxonMobil headed by its Chairman and CEO, Darren Woods. Healthy development of two-way investments between China and the U.S. is beneficial to both sides as well as to the recovery of the global economy and stable growth of international trade, Li said. Countries should make joint efforts to safeguard trade liberalization and investment facilitation, and China welcomes ExxonMobil to invest in large petrochemical projects, he said.

China will further lower the threshold for market access, treat domestic and foreign companies equally and better protect intellectual property rights, Premier Li said. U.S. companies that have invested in China should be aware that China is a huge market and they have been rewarded with fair returns, the Premier said. The U.S. business community, including ExxonMobil, should expand its investment in China, he added. ExxonMobil, which is ranked ninth on this year’s Fortune Global 500 list, started operating in China in 1892 as Standard Oil and has invested USD2.5 billion in China in the past few decades, the China Daily reports.

Premier Li and Darren Woods discussed a USD10 billion plan to build a petrochemical complex and invest in a liquefied natural gas terminal in Guangdong. This is not the first time the Chinese government tries to reassure foreign businesses. In July, Chinese Vice President Wang Qishan met Tesla CEO Elon Musk and in June Chinese President Xi Jinping told American executives from UPS, Pfizer, Cargill, Prologis and Goldman Sachs that China’s market would remain open to foreign investors.