In January-September 2015, the foreign investment in China maintained sound momentum, forming a sharp contrast with the decline of the global cross-border direct investment, which is closely related to China’s comprehensively deepening opening-up and creating new and better business environment at a higher platform.
Official from the Department of Foreign Investment Administration pointed out that the foreign investment in China in January-September took on the following characteristics:
Firstly, the overall size of foreign investment sustained a steady growth. In January-September, a total of 18,980 foreign-invested enterprises were approved, up 10.1% year on year; and its actually utilized foreign capital is RMB584.74 billion (US$94.9 billion), going up 9% year on year. In September, 2,153 newly-established foreign-invested enterprises were approved, up 5.2% year on year; the actually utilized foreign capital registered RMB59.47 billion (US$9.56 billion), up 7.1% year on year.
Secondly, industrial structure was further optimized. Foreign investment in hi-tech service sector and hi-tech manufacturing sustained a rising momentum. In January-September, the actually utilized foreign investment in the service sector registered US$57.99 billion, up 19.2% year on year, taking up 61.1% of the national total. Among these, the actually utilized FDI in hi-tech service sector was US$6.16 billion, up 57.6% year on year, taking up 17.1% of the total service sector (excluding the real estate), of which the R&D and design service, information technology service and scientific research stood out with a growth of 49.5%, 37.2% and 102.5% respectively. The actually utilized FDI in manufacturing stood at US$29.84 billion, up 0.7% year on year, taking up 31.4% of the national total. Among these, the actually-utilized FDI in hi-tech manufacturing was US$7 billion, up 10.4% year on year, taking up 23.5% of the total actually utilized FDI in manufacturing, of which the electronic components manufacturing, integrated circuit manufacturing, communications equipment manufacturing, aerospace and aviation and equipment manufacturing stood out with a growth of 25.5%, 75.5%, 171.7% and 49.2% respectively.
Thirdly, the actually utilized foreign investment in eastern, central and western China maintained its growth. In January-September, the actually utilized FDI in eastern China, central China and western China was US$80.53 billion, US$8.62 billion, and US$5.75 billion respectively, up 10.1% , 0.3% and 2.2% respectively year on year.
Fourthly, the foreign M&A was active. The size and percentage of foreign M&A were both greatly improved. In January-September, the number of foreign-invested enterprises established by M&A reached 1,016. Its contract value of foreign capital is US$18.93 billion and its actually utilized FDI is US$15.29 billion, up 16.5%, 155.3% and 204.5% respectively year on year. The percentage that M&A takes up among the national total actually utilized FDI in January-September 2015 has risen to 16.1% from 5.8%.
