Hu Jingyan, director of the Foreign Investment Administration of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC), made the remark at the opening ceremony of a 4-day trade and economic cooperation forum.

Hu said that FDI absorption constitutes an important part of China's opening-up policy. All efforts are being made to seize the opportunities offered by economic globalization and to better adapt to the information revolution, so as to create a stable environment for overseas investors, he said.

Hu said that China will further open its service industries and encourage more FDI in such sectors as commerce, foreign trade, transportation, medical service, education, finance, insurance, telecommunication and intermediary services.

Presently, the Chinese government encourages overseas-funded enterprises to invest in China's vast western areas, help perfect China's legal system, participate in the renovation of state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and to restructure China's SOEs through procurement or acquisition, he said.

The Chinese government has also taken measures to encourage overseas investors to introduce and develop new and high technologies and welcome more multinational corporations to invest in China, said Hu.

Statistics show that China has been the biggest FDI recipient among developing countries for seven consecutive years since 1993.

At the end of August this year, investors from more than 180 countries and regions had established over 355,600 overseas-funded enterprises in China. Total contractual overseas investment exceeded US$640 billion.

Of the top 500 transnational corporations of the world, almost 400 have invested in China. Overseas-funded enterprises have played an important role in boosting China's economy. The majority of these enterprises are operating well in China and have achieved positive economic results. In 1999, the total import and export volume of overseas-funded enterprises reached US$170 billion, up 10.67 percent from that of 1998.

(Xinhua 09/27/2000)