According to the municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Committee,90 foreign-funded companies were approved in Tianjin in January, 66.7 percent up from the previous year.

Seventy of those were solely foreign invested. Contractual foreign investment amounted to US$256 million, a year-on-year rise of 137 percent.

Twelve foreign invested projects involved more than US$5 million, nearly one and a half times more than in the same period last year. Committee sources said the investment mainly came from Hong Kong, the United States, Japan, the Republic of Korea and Taiwan, accounting for 65.8 percent of the total and a year-on-year increase of more than 475 percent.

The service industry has become increasingly popular with overseas investors. A total of 62.51 million US dollars went into retailing and catering, a rise of 750 percent year-on-year. Meanwhile, interest in manufacturing remained steady with contractual investment of US$88.01 million, one-third of the city's total overseas investment in January.

(Xinhua News Agency February 18, 2003)