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FDI Exceeds US$320 Billion
By the end of May this year, investors from more than 180 countries and regions worldwide had set up 350,000 foreign-funded enterprises in China with the contractual investment volume exceeding US$632.3 billion and actual paid-in capital reaching US$ 320.6 billion.
Ma Xiuhong, minister assistant of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, said at the Sino-Britain Investment Symposium held in Wuhan that the huge space for development and the sustained and rapid economic growth created by China's reform and opening program had made China a hot region for direct foreign investment, a developing country that has attracted the most foreign capital for seven straight years.
At present, among the top 500 transnational companies of the world, 400 have set up their enterprises in China.
Foreign-funded enterprises have become an important part of China's enterprises and have played a notably enhanced role in promoting the development of national economy, maintaining an equilibrium of balance of payments, and increasing employment. Statistics show that in the past year, the growth rate of the industrial added value of foreign-funded enterprises was higher than the national average and their proportion to the national industrial added value has risen to 20.6 percent. Taxes paid by foreign-funded enterprises increased by 33.78 percent, becoming one of the fastest growing tax sources, with the value of tax payment representing 16 percent of the national industrial and commercial tax revenue; their import and export volume hit US$174.5 billion, accounting for 48.38 percent of the national total; the relatively large surplus resulted from banking settlement and sales of foreign exchange has played a positive role in keeping the stable growth of the national foreign exchange reserves. By the end of last year, about 20 million people were employed by foreign-funded enterprises, accounting for nearly 10 percent of the country's urban laboring population.
Ma Jihong indicated that China's reform and opening will be further quickened, the market economic structure will be further improved, the investment environment will become more attractive, and China's economic development will provide investors from different countries with broader opportunities for cooperation. Currently, the Chinese government encourages foreign investment mainly in the following fields: encouraging foreign-funded enterprises to introduce, develop and innovate new technology and to promote readjustment of the industrial structure; encouraging foreign businessmen to invest in central and west China so as to spur the coordinated development of the regional economy.
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