The Economic Times Tuesday, August 13, 2002
FDI in China continues to show robust growth AFP BEIJING: Foreign direct investment in China surged 22 per cent year-on-year in the first seven months of 2002, well up on the 18.7 per cent recorded in the first half of the year, official figures showed on Monday. A total of $29.5 billion of overseas investment was pumped into the country's economy to the end of July, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation said. The swift growth follows China's World Trade Organization membership, achieved late last year. Foreign investment has shot up as China begins dismantling many of its arcane regulations that excluded foreign competition, now outlawed under WTO regulations. Investment commitment in the first seven months to July also showed strong gains, up 34.9 per cent, although this year-on-year increase slowed from the stellar 45.7 mark of the comparable seven-month period in 2001. China's Minister for Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng forecast earlier this month that China's total direct foreign investment could reach $50 billion this year, up from $46.8 billion in 2001. Copyright © 2002 Times Internet Limited. All rights reserved.
