Foreign investment growth firm, targeting manufacturing

CHINA’S inbound foreign investment maintained steady growth between January and November, with capital increasingly channeled into high-tech manufacturing.

For the 11 months, 54,703 enterprises were established with foreign capital, up 77.5 percent from the same period last year.

But realized foreign investment was 793.27 billion yuan (US$115.39 billion), down 1.3 percent from a year earlier, data from the Ministry of Commerce released yesterday showed.

In November, the number of new foreign-funded companies rose 11.1 percent annually to 5,158 from the same month last year.

But realized investment fell to 92.11 billion yuan, down 26.3 percent year on year.

This was mainly due to an unusual spike last year — because of the implementation of new government policies and the approval of several major projects — said Gao Feng, spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce.

However, manufacturing and high-tech manufacturing jumped sharply this year.

The manufacturing sector realized 241.02 billion yuan of foreign capital in the January-November period, up 16 percent from a year earlier.

Realized foreign investment in high-tech manufacturing was 78.13 billion yuan, jumping sharply by 30.2 percent over the same period last year.

Among them, electronics and communication equipment manufacturing, medical equipment and instrumentation manufacturing, and computer and office equipment manufacturing respectively increased 36.4 percent, 132.5 percent, and 112.7 percent from with the first 11 months last year.

From January to November, the central region implemented 56.64 billion yuan of promised foreign capital, up 8.7 percent from the same period last year, while the western region used 54.45 billion yuan — a year-on-year increase of 17.4 percent.

A total 8,569 new enterprises were set up in the free trade zones in the 11 months, an increase of 34.6 percent over the same period last year.

And the actual use of foreign capital in the FTZs jumped 10.4 percent, accounting for 12.7 percent of the total.

Major investors Singapore, South Korea, Britain, Japan, the United States and Germany increased their investment by 7.4 percent, 38.7 percent, 198.9 percent, 20.1 percent, 3.7 percent and 30.2 percent year on year.

The amount of foreign investment actually invested by countries along the Belt and Road route, ASEAN, and the EU grew 14.9 percent, 15.7 percent, and 16.1 percent.

Gao also told reporters yesterday China’s imports and exports maintained fairly rapid growth in the first 11 months, helped by structural changes, faster transformation and improved efficiency.

China’s imports and exports totaled 27.88 trillion yuan in the first 11 months, up 11. 1 percent from the same period last year.

Exports grew 8.2 percent to 14.92 trillion yuan while imports rose 14.6 percent to 12.96 trillion yuan, narrowing the trade surplus by 21.1 percent to be 1.96 trillion yuan.