According to revised statistics released yesterday by the Ministry of Commerce, China's actual foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2005 amounted to US$72.4 billion, up 19.42 percent over that of 2004. 

 

The newly revised total is up by US$11.8 billion over the figure announced by the ministry in January, which excluded the FDI involving banking, insurance and securities.  

 

The new figure indicates that the service and trade sector has become an important field for attracting foreign investors, said Ma Xiuhong, vice commerce minister, at yesterday's news conference.

 

As a rule, after its first release of FDI figures in January the ministry will revise them later to include those operating in the various financial sectors.

 

Statistics show that in the first four months of 2006 a total of 12,639 foreign-funded companies were set up in China with the FDI up 5.7 percent to US$18.48 billion over the same period of last year.

 

Ma said that foreign-funded companies in China accounted for 57.3 percent of China's overall exports in 2005 and they took an 87.89 percent share of the total of high-tech exported products. 

 

Although accounting for only 3 percent of China's overall companies, foreign-funded companies have taken up 28.5 percent of the country's total industrial added value and 20.5 percent of the tax revenue, Ma said.

 

(Xinhua News Agency June 9, 2006)