Shanghai Reports Rapid Growth in US, Japanese InvestmentContractual investment in this port city from the United States and Japan reached 438 million US dollars and 945 million US dollars, respectively, during the first half of this year, an increase of 26 percent and 178 percent over the same period last year.According to statistics from the Shanghai municipal government, Japan is the biggest source of overseas investment in the city and the United States comes third after Hong Kong, whose investment dropped by 23 percent to 406 million U.S. dollars. Contractual overseas investment in the city totaled 4 billion US dollars for the first half of this year, 75 percent of which was in the manufacturing industry. Local officials say the city approved 97 big projects, which absorbed a total of 2.8 billion U.S. dollars, with each taking more than 10 million U.S. dollars. Shanghai plans to absorb 5.5 billion U.S. dollars this year. Experts attribute the sharp increase in overseas investment to the facts that foreign investors are optimistic about the prospects in Shanghai as China is expected to join the World Trade Organization, and promises high investment yields. Overseas-funded companies in Shanghai generated 134.3 billion yuan in sales revenue during the first five months of this year. They also posted a total profit of 6 billion yuan, up 23 percent and 20 percent, respectively, over the same period of last year. |
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