CHINA'S FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT REACHES US$1000 BILLION BY MARCH

By Vincent Low Seng Guan

BEIJING, April 14, (Bernama) -- China topped developing countries in
attracting US$1,000 billion in foreign investments as of March 2010.

There are 690,000 foreign companies operating in China today which had
created 45 million jobs.

"This made China top in attracting the most foreign investment over 17 years
consecutively," said Vice Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong at a press conference
to announce new foreign investment regulations.

In the first three months of this year, the number of new foreign companies
which had established a presence in China rose 19.9 per cent to 5,459 with total
investments up 7.7 per cent to US$23.44 billion.

Ma said despite the global economic crisis, China secured foreign direct
investments of US$945.4 billion in 2009.

Meanwhile, China still welcomes foreign investments in high-tech industries,
services sectors, energy-saving and environmental protection but not industries
or projects that pollute the environment.

Qualified foreign fund companies are also allowed to go public, issue
corporate bonds or medium-term bills in China, according to the new regulations.

Multinationals are encouraged to set up regional headquarters, research and
development centres, procurement hubs, financial management and other functional
offices in China.

Importing items for scientific and technological development by qualified
foreign-funded research and development centres would be exempted from tariffs,
importing value-added tax and goods and services tax by end 2010.

Foreign-funded enterprises were also encouraged to increase their
investments in China's central and western regions particularly in environment
friendly and labour-intensive companies.
-- BERNAMA


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