FDI in China rose 4.2 per cent year on year to reach around USD 98 billionin the first ten months of the year with service sector attracting massive investments, unlike manufacturing which suffered over capacity, official data said today.
The growth rate is unchanged from the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
The service industry continued to attract massive foreign investment from January to October, saidTang Wenhong, head of the ministry's foreign investment division.
The FDI rose 4.2 per cent to reach 666.3 billion yuan during initial ten months. In the service sector, which accounted for 70.7 per cent of all investment, FDI increased 9.1 per cent year on year during the period.
In particular, FDI in high-tech services skyrocketed 90.2 per cent from a year earlier to reach 79.18 billion yuan.
In the first ten months, FDI from the US surged 79.8 per cent, while that from the European Union soared 41.5 per cent.
The number of newly-established foreign companies with investment of over 100 million dollars totaled 600.
FDI in China's western regions jumped 29.8 per cent year on year to 49.27 billion yuan during the 10-month period, while the more developed eastern areas attracted 582.82 billion yuan in investment, up 6.9 per cent.
Official media attributed the continued inflow of FDI to China attaching great importance to improve its business environment, pledging more measures to create a level playing field for domestic and foreign companies.
Some administrative approvals for foreign investors setting up businesses on the Chinese mainland have been scrapped in recent years.
Investors are now only required to report business plans to local regulators, as long as their business is not on the "negative list", state-run Xinhua news agency reported.
China is also stepping up its overseas direct investment, (ODI) USD 102.75 billion in the first seven months over taking the FDI.
As per the latest figures, the non-financial ODI
increased in the first ten months of the year, with strong growth in the US, 53.3 per cent year on year to reach USD 145.96 billion.
In the first ten months, outbound investment from the Chinese mainland mostly went to the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, ASEAN, the European Union, Australia, the US, Russia and Japan.
The US received the strongest year-on-year increase, at 173.9 per cent.
Most of the investment went to commercial services, manufacturing and retail, with equipment manufacturing almost quadrupling from last year.
Chinese companies continued to invest heavily in countries along the Belt and Road Initiative, signing construction contracts worth over USD 84 billion during the period, up 30.7 per cent year on year.
