China's foreign direct investment may be falling in the first quarter, but some multinationals remain committed to the market and are expanding their investments here. 

Material science giant Dow is one of those. The company signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Zhangjiagang foreign trade zone on Monday to invest 300 million U.S. dollars in the next 5 years for the expanding of capacity.

Dow started its operation in Zhangjiagang in 2002. Yoke Loon Lim, president of Dow Greater China, told CGTN that the company has an excellent record working with local government. "This is a place whereby we are really familiar with and we even had set a record of making a new investment in Zhangjiagang every 18 months," he said.

Dow's investment strategy in China is for the long term. Lim said the latest MoU helps Dow to address the growing needs of the Chinese market, especially in high growth areas like home and personal care, consumer electronics, infrastructure and mobility.

In the first quarter, Dow's financials have not performed well. While the biggest Dow factory site in Zhangjiagang continued to work during the period and the other six manufacturing factories resumed normal operations on February 9, the company faced logistics issues due to the Chinese New Year and the novel coronavirus outbreak.

"It has been returning very fast to normal since the end of February. And so far, the orders book in March looks very strong," Lim noted, adding that Dow is looking to further increase investment in medical-related sectors.

"We are also very fortunate that we have a wide range of solutions and products that go into the medical and hygiene segment, which is really in high demand now," he added.

China is returning to normal operations with the government's support while many other countries are still trying hard to cope with the pandemic. This positive outlook has led Dow to believe China's economy will recover soon and come back even better and stronger after the pandemic.