China gets $98 billion FDI in ten months

Beijing: FDI in China rose 4.2 percent year on year to reach around USD 98 billion in the first ten months of the year with service sector attracting massive investments, unlike manufacturing which suffered over capacity, official data said on Thursday.

The growth rate is unchanged from the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The service industry continued to attract massive foreign investment from January to October, said Tang Wenhong, head of the ministry's foreign investment division.

The FDI rose 4.2 percent to reach 666.3 billion yuan during initial ten months. In the service sector, which accounted for 70.7 percent of all investment, FDI increased 9.1 percent year on year during the period.

In particular, FDI in high-tech services skyrocketed 90.2 percent from a year earlier to reach 79.18 billion yuan.

In the first ten months, FDI from the US surged 79.8 percent, while that from the European Union soared 41.5 percent.

The number of newly-established foreign companies with investment of over 100 million dollars totaled 600.

FDI in China's western regions jumped 29.8 percent year on year to 49.27 billion yuan during the 10-month period, while the more developed eastern areas attracted 582.82 billion yuan in investment, up 6.9 percent.

Official media attributed the continued inflow of FDI to China attaching great importance to improve its business environment, pledging more measures to create a level playing field for domestic and foreign companies.

Some administrative approvals for foreign investors setting up businesses on the Chinese mainland have been scrapped in recent years.

Investors are now only required to report business plans to local regulators, as long as their business is not on the "negative list", state-run Xinhua news agency reported.

China is also stepping up its overseas direct investment, (ODI) USD 102.75 billion in the first seven months over taking the FDI.