According to statistics released by the city's foreign investment work committee, Shanghai approved 1,665 overseas- invested projects in the January-August period, involving some US$5 billion of contractual investment, up 59.04 percent on an annual basis.

Japan replaced Hong Kong as the largest investor in Shanghai, with a total contractual investment of US$1.233 billion, up 188 percent.

Meanwhile, investment from Hong Kong was down by 28.23 percent to US$543 million, and that from the United States was up by 1.38 percent to US$508 million.

The city's secondary industry absorbed the largest amount of overseas investment, totaling US$3.581 billion, a 69.31- percent rise over the period one year ago.

Overseas-funded enterprises in Shanghai have also reported good performances over the past months, with gross sales totaling some 239.3 billion yuan (US$28.8 billion), up 36.3 percent.

(peopledaily.com.cn 09/13/2001)