According to revised statistics released yesterday by the
Ministry of Commerce, China's actual foreign direct investment
(FDI) in 2005 amounted to US$72.4 billion, up 19.42 percent over
that of 2004.
The newly revised total is up by US$11.8 billion over the figure
announced by the ministry in January, which excluded the FDI
involving banking, insurance and securities.
The new figure indicates that the service and trade sector has
become an important field for attracting foreign investors, said Ma
Xiuhong, vice commerce minister, at yesterday's news
conference.
As a rule, after its first release of FDI figures in January the
ministry will revise them later to include those operating in the
various financial sectors.
Statistics show that in the first four months of 2006 a total of
12,639 foreign-funded companies were set up in China with the FDI
up 5.7 percent to US$18.48 billion over the same period of last
year.
Ma said that foreign-funded companies in China accounted for
57.3 percent of China's overall exports in 2005 and they took an
87.89 percent share of the total of high-tech exported
products.
Although accounting for only 3 percent of China's overall
companies, foreign-funded companies have taken up 28.5 percent of
the country's total industrial added value and 20.5 percent of the
tax revenue, Ma said.
(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2006)