Dramatic Gains Yielded in Wooing Foreign Funding 　　Utilization of foreign funds posted gratifying results for all the aftermath of the monetary crisis in Asia last year. 19846 foreign-funded enterprises were approved last year, a decrease of 5.7% from a year earlier; the newly signed contracts were valued at US$52.132 billion, an increase of 2.21%; and US$ 45.582 billion had been actually used, a rise of 0.67%. 　　Up to the end of last year, an accumulated total of 324712 foreign-funded enterprises were approved with singed contracts totaling US$ 572.52 billion in value and US$267.46 billion were actually used. 　　Figures gleaned from the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation indicates that foreign investment from Europe, America and part of the free port areas chalked up a sustainable growth. Investment under contract from EU, The US, and part of the free port areas is US$ 5.91 billion, US$ 6.21 billion and US$ 7.35 Billion, an increase of 39.8%, 25.8% and 29.2% respectively. The arrived foreign investment is US 4.3 billion, US3.91 billion and US$ 4.14 billion, up 3.1%. 20.8% and 100.7% respectively. 　　The component of the foreign investment has been further optimized. The proportion of the foreign-funded industrial projects is 66.7% in value, an increase of 10.3%; that of the value of the foreign-invested real estate projects stands at 9.9%, a fall of 1.4%. The value of the foreign invested projects averages US$ 2.627 million, up 8.2%. From the perspective of foreign invested regions, the growth rate of foreign investment in the western part of the country is palpably higher than in the eastern part of China due to priority given by the state. The newly approved contracts totaled US$7.33 billion in value in the central and western part, a growth of 10.9% against 0.01% (staying at the same level with the year before) in the eastern part of the country. TopNews 1999-02-17 Page1 Full Story in Chinese