South China City Reports Surge in Overseas InvestmentHuizhou, a fast-growing industrial city in south China's Guangdong Province, has reported record overseas investment recently following a 4 billion US dollar petrochemical contract sealed late last year.Liu Jinzhou, mayor of Huizhou, said over the weekend that the amount of overseas investment in the city during the first five months of this year totaled 360 million U.S. dollars, up nearly 20 percent over the same period of last year. The contracted overseas investment in the five months, however, reached 2.32 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 8.3 times over the same period of last year. The impressive growth represents a new wave of overseas investment after oil giant Shell agreed late last October to contribute half of the 4.05 billion U.S. dollars needed for the huge petrochemical project in the city, according to the mayor. The 4.05 billion U.S. dollar investment, half of which will be funded by Shell's Chinese partners, brought last year's total amount of contracted overseas investment in the city to 11.46 billion U.S. dollars. The petrochemical project will turn out 800,000 tons of ethylene and 2.3 million tons of petrochemical products each year upon the completion of its first phase construction in 2005. The mayor attributed the investment growth to the improving investment environment of Huizhou and industrial impact of the huge petrochemical project. |
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