China's used foreign direct investment (FDI) dropped by 17.9 percent to 43 billion U.S. dollars in the first half of this year from a year ago, said Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, Wednesday.

In June, used FDI fell 6.8 percent year on year to 8.96 billion U.S. dollars, up 11 percentage points from the May level, Yao said.

This was the ninth straight monthly fall in FDI usage since last October, as the global economic downturn pushed companies to cut spending.

A total of 2,529 foreign companies had got permissions to set up in China in June, down 3.8 percent from the same period of last year, Yao said.

The figure for the first half of the year was 10,419, down 28.4 percent from last year, he said.

To combat the negative impact brought by declining FDI, the ministry would continue to work with other government departments on more policies to boost industrial upgrading, improve the country's investment environment and attract more investment to the central and western regions, said Yao.

In 2008, foreign-invested businesses contributed 29.7 percent of the country's industrial output, 21 percent of tax revenue, 55.3 percent of exports and 54.7 percent of imports. It also created jobs for 45 million people, according to earlier figures from the commerce ministry.

(Xinhua News Agency July 15, 2009)