Study On Local Foreign Affairs Office's Capability Building In Serving Foreign-invested Enterprises

The 3 decades of reform and opening up has brought to China rapid economic development and great shifts in government functions, thus the establishment of service-oriented government. One responsibility held by service-oriented government is to provide the needed public services to the general public and create favorable conditions for all kinds of market entities for sound development and fair competition. China has gained competitive edges on both hard and soft environment, making itself one of the hot spots for international investment. The foreign invested enterprises in China also become the market entity involved in China's economic growth. How to create for them an equitable and sound investment environment has attracted local governments'attention.I have been working in local foreign affairs office for 8 years, which happens to be the period featuring by the ever-growing establishment of service-oriented government. Local foreign affairs office has been dedicated to promoting cities'internationalization, thus making itself an indispensable part of a sound investment environment. By writing this thesis, I hope to build up a clearer vision about the function shift of foreign affairs office in serving the foreign invested companies and make better preparations for my future by looking back on the past. I also hope my analysis and suggestions may shed some light on local foreign affairs office's practice.The theories of service-oriented government will be the focus and main guidance of the thesis. By analyzing the documents from both at home or abroad and the Suzhou case, the thesis will discuss about the necessity of capability improvement of local foreign affairs office in order to provide better services to the companies. With survey results and face-to-face communication, the thesis will talk about the current capability of Suzhou Foreign Affairs Office in serving Italian companies, try to figure out the general problems and the reasons, then to offer some valuable suggestions to capability building in this regard.