The city offered tremendous opportunities to global investors following China's accession to the World Trade Organization, said Shanghai's Vice-Mayor Jiang Yiren during the signing ceremony on March 18.

This year, Shanghai will further open its service trade sector and draw more transnational corporations to set up regional headquarters and research and development centres in Shanghai, he said.

While Shanghai will continue to absorb foreign investment in manufacturing industries, infrastructure construction and real estate sectors, it will encourage more small and medium-sized enterprises to carry out joint-stock cooperation with their overseas partners, he said.

The 15 newly approved projects cover communications, automobiles, textiles, electronics, glasswork, water conservancy and real estate. The US-based FCI Corporation and the China Huayuan Group took the lead with a total investment of US$104 million in establishing two joint venture companies in Shanghai.

Shanghai approved 417 foreign-funded projects in January and February alone, involving US$1.55 billion of overseas investment, a 10.58-percent rise over last year.

Shanghai drew an unprecedented US$7.373 billion of overseas investment in 2001.

A trade official in Shanghai attributed Shanghai's lasting attraction to investors to the good performance of most foreign-funded enterprises in Shanghai. Statistics show these enterprises reported an annual increase of 19.5 percent in sales, 11.9 percent in exports and 7 percent in profits last year. Their number of employees also rose by 5.1 percent on a yearly basis.

(Xinhua News Agency March 20, 2002)