Foreign investment in China reached US$14.246 billion in the first quarter, up 6.4 percent year on year, said a latest report released by the Ministry of Commerce on Friday.

 

Between January and March, a total of 8,909 new foreign-invested enterprises were approved, a drop of 4.26 percent year on year.

 

The actual paid-up investment from Japan was US$1.232 billion, while that from the Republic of Korea was US$1.211 billion. In contrast, Germany and the United States have invested US$776 million and US$612 million respectively.

 

In 2005, China has seen a deficit of US$4.1 billion in service trade, down 57.1 percent year on year, said the report citing latest statistics from the World Trade Organization.

 

Meanwhile, the proportion of China's exports to the world's total export volume grew from 6.5 percent in 2004 to 7.3 percent in 2005 while the proportion of China's imports to the world's total import volume grew from 5.9 percent to 6.1 percent.

 

Last year, both the world's total exports volume and imports volume have topped US$10 trillion for the first time, witnessing a year-on-year growth of 13 percent, said the report.

 

(Xinhua News Agency April 15, 2006)