The chairman of a British company which has successfully partnered with a Dalian electric motor plant says that foreign investment in China has inspired the competitive atmosphere necessary to invigorate domestic enterprises.

Foreign investment has brought China not only funds and job opportunities, but also the sort of competition that will prod its domestic enterprises to reform, said Andrews Green, chairman of the Brook Crompton company under the British Invensys Group.

Invensys, an international automation company, and the Dalian No. 2 Motors Company jointly set up the Dalian Brook Crompton Electric Motors Co. Ltd. last year with a total investment of 245 million yuan (29.4 million US dollars) in Dalian, a port city in Liaoning Province, northeast China.

Since the cooperation was formed on December 18 last year, the new company's progress has been "really encouraging," Green said.

The prospects of China's entry into the World Trade Organization will benefit both China and Britain, he said

Invensys Group, one of Britain's main investors in China, has established 19 ventures in the country with a total investment of 200 million US dollars.

Statistics show that Britain's contracted investment in Dalian is 140 million US dollars, covering 38 joint ventures. And Britain's two key banks, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Co. Ltd., and the Standard Chartered Bank, have also set up their own offices in the city.

By the end of 1998, Britain had set up more than 2,000 joint ventures in China with total investment exceeding 13 billion US dollars. (Xinhua)