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The financial industry is a major destination for foreign direct investment (FDI) because of the opening-up of the sector, according to Vice-Minister of Commerce Ma Xiuhong.

 

The financial sector including banking, insurance and securities has become a new growth area for foreign investment flowing into the country, Ma said.

 

Her remarks were based on revised statistics of actual foreign direct investment in 2005.

 

When the ministry first released the figure in January, it estimated actual foreign investment in China stood at US$60.33 billion last year, 0.5 percent down from 2004. But investment in the financial sector was not included.

 

The actual FDI was finally revised to US$72.4 billion, reflecting a hefty growth of nearly 20 percent on the previous year.

 

"We revise the (FDI) figure every year but in the past there were just small revisions so they didn't attract too much attention," Ma explained. She added that before 2004, foreign investment in the financial sector was less than US$2 billion each year.

 

She said the increase in financial investment resulted from the continuous opening-up of the sector and reforms within it.

 

Upon entry to the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2001, China committed itself to gradually opening its financial industries such as banking, securities and leasing markets to foreign investors.

 

FDI in the manufacturing sector is expected to level off in the coming years while that in the financial sector has just begun. Ma said the FDI growth rate in the first five months is expected to keep the same pace as the period from January to April.

 

According to ministry data, China attracted US$18.4 billion in actual foreign investment in the first four months of the year, up 5.7 percent on the previous year. The government approved 12,639 new foreign-invested companies during this period.

 

"We found that the financial and services sectors remain a hotspot for investment flows," Ma said. "But foreign investment to industries involved in high-tech production still account for a large proportion."

 

Ma noted that China's outbound investment has also grown rapidly this year. Direct investment outward skyrocketed by 280 percent year-on-year to US$2.68 billion in the first quarter of this year.

 

"Investment is not only flowing to developing countries but also to developed countries," Ma added.

 

In order to promote both inward and outward investment, the commerce ministry is scheduled to hold the 10th China International Fair for Investment and Trade on September 8.

 

Since being launched in 1997, the event has helped more than 10,000 investment cooperation projects to get off the ground, with a total value of US$ 60 billion.

 

The fair this year is expected to include more than 100 organizations from both home and abroad, and see 20,000 cooperation projects.

 

(China Daily June 9, 2006)