Actual foreign direct investment (FDI) in China reached a new high
at US$46.85 billion last year, as investors build up confidence in
the market following its accession to the World Trade Organization
(WTO), according to the latest statistics released by the Ministry
of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC).
This registered a 14.9 percent year-on-year increase and wrote off
1998's record inflow of US$45.46 billion foreign capital into the
market.
The rapid increase is a strong rebound from falls in China's use of
FDIs in the past two years due to the 1997 Southeast Asian
financial crisis.
The tumult shook up foreign investors' confidence in the so-called
"tiger" economies and decreased money input in China by 11.32
percent in 1999 and a further 0.19 percent last year.
China is walking out of the shadow of the financial crisis as
Southeast Asian economies recover, said Wang Zhile, a senior
researcher with the Chinese Academy of International Trade and
Economic Cooperation, a think-tank of MOFTEC.
He
said China is also an attractive target for many foreign investors
because of its outstanding economic performance against the
background of a gloomy world economic outlook.
The Chinese economy is projected to have increased about 7.3
percent year-on-year last year, compared with 2.4 percent for the
world as a whole, as estimated by the International Monetary
Fund.
China's WTO accession boosts foreign investors' confidence in the
market, said Long Guoqiang, a senior researcher with the
Development Research Center of the State Council.
He
said the high rise in actual FDI was also a result of the rapid
increase in China's contracted FDI last year.
Contracted FDI increased 10.43 percent from 2000 to US$69.19
billion last year, according to MOFTEC statistics.
He
said he expected the increase in China's use of FDI to accelerate
this year, when China starts to carry out its commitments to the
WTO.
(China Daily January 15, 2002)
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