More than 40 percent of China's foreign investment companies are in Beijing, according to new statistics - but the capital still lags behind Shanghai.

China boasts about 350 foreign investment companies, among which 153 are in Beijing, said an official from the Beijing Investment Promotion Bureau.

But Beijing was beaten by Shanghai, which had 165 foreign investment companies by the end of 2007, according to the Statistics Bureau of Shanghai.

Accounting for 1.4 percent of Beijing's foreign companies in number, the investment companies raked in 35.4 percent of profit and turned in 18 percent of tax altogether last year.

"Fast development of investment companies, to some extent, is a symbol that the city has reached a relatively mature stage in absorbing and utilizing foreign capital," an unnamed professor with the Research Institute of International Business and Economics under the Ministry of Commerce was quoted as saying.

(Xinhua News Agency February 19, 2008)