Beijing Approves Over 15,000 Overseas-Backed BusinessesThis Chinese capital of Beijing announced Tuesday that it had approved 15,272 overseas-financed businesses by late June.The contracts involve 30.04 billion US dollars of overseas investment, according to information from the Beijing Municipal Commission for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation. Zhou He, deputy director of the commission, said that in the first six months of the year, the city approved 534 new overseas-funded enterprises, up 73.4 percent from the same period last year, and contracts involving 2.28 billion U.S. dollars of overseas investment. According to Zhou, Internet businesses made up half of the newly-approved overseas financed enterprises to reach 262. These businesses are mostly situated in Zhongguancun Area and are engaged in information and telecommunications services. Zhou disclosed in the latter half of the year, Beijing would experiment more in using overseas investments in fields of retailing, foreign trade, travel agencies, vocational education and education of higher learning. In the meantime, efforts will be made to attract more investment from multinationals, and to increase channels to attract overseas capital indirectly, such as raising funds overseas and overseas investors buying the stock of existing enterprises in Beijing, said Zhou. Zhou urged that Beijing continue to improve its investment environment, including stepping up contacts with overseas-funded businesses, improving complaint centers for overseas investors, timely solving difficulties for overseas investors and safeguarding their legitimate rights. |
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