China had a foreign direct investment (FDI) of US$30.26 billion in the first half year, up 34.33 percent year-on-year, according to the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce.
Wednesday's China Daily reports that contracted foreign capital increased 40.25 percent over the same period of last year to US$50.96 billion and the number of newly approved foreign invested companies rose 22.3 percent to 18,877 in this period.
Affected by the SARS outbreak in mid-April, FDI in June rose by mere 2.48 percent from June last year to 6.98 billion and the number of newly established foreign-invested companies totaled only 3,702 in the month, up just 0.79 percent from last June.
Experts said the SARS outbreak could have cost US$1 billion FDI in the second quarter. But China's FDI is still likely to reach its target of US$60 billion this year.
Vice Premier Wu Yi Tuesday promised foreign companies that the Chinese government will try to create better and safer business environment and the Ministry of Commerce is preparing to unify present rules on overseas-financed investment companies in order to facilitate their activities in China, according to the paper.
(Xinhua News Agency July 16, 2003)
