China will lay stress on the imports of advanced technology, management, professional expertise, high-technology and on the growth of service trade in utilizing overseas investment in the coming five years, a senior official said Friday.

Chinese State Councilor Wu Yi made the remark while meeting with some 700 government officials and entrepreneurs from inside and outside China who had gathered here for a meeting of the China Association of Enterprises with Foreign Investment. The association, established in 1987, is a nationwide organization composed of overseas-invested companies and relevant institutions.

Wu said the way China attracts overseas investment should be changed in the 2001-05 period from attracting foreign capital to paying more attention to the imports of advanced technology, modern management and high-level professionals; from imports of assembly lines to imports of high-technology; and from setting up joint ventures in the industrial sector only to setting up joint ventures in the service trade.

Overseas businessmen are encouraged to invest in these areas, she said.

This week, China held the National Conference on Utilizing Foreign Direct Investment in order to improve the quality and level of the utilization of foreign investment.

Wu said that China will pay special attention to improving the "soft" investment environment, meaning standardizing the market economy order and making government departments more efficient.

(People's Daily 07/07/2001)