Beijing, the national capital, welcomes foreign investors and will try every means to improve investment environment, said vice-mayor Zhang Mao.

Speaking at a seminar on policies concerning foreign-funded enterprises in Beijing, the city will further open up its commerce, tourism, high technology, and services for foreign investment.

Representatives from over 200 foreign-invested companies, including Motorola, National and the American Chamber of Commerce, attended the seminar.

Zhang said while the city's business community and government officials hold regular meetings with overseas investors, they also encourage these investors to air any complaints and suggestions via the Internet.

Zhang said that the government will provide the same kind of assistance it gives to its state industries. The Beijing city government will allow district and county-level governments to directly handle the approval of foreign-funded enterprises with investments below 10 million US dollars.

Officials from the city's labor, personnel and public security bureaux answered questions from these foreign company representatives.

During the first ten months, Beijing approved 526 overseas- invested companies, with a combined contractual investment of 1.56 billion US dollars. There are 43 companies in Beijing which have investments worth more than 10 million US dollars each. (Xinhua)