China sees record FDI inflow in H1: commerce ministry

BEIJING, July 22– Foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland saw rapid growth in the first half of this year amid a string of government policies to improve the business environment, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday. FDI into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, surged 28.7 percent year on year in yuan terms, or 33.9 percent year on year in U.S. dollar…

BEIJING, July 22 (Xinhua) — Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland saw rapid growth in the first half (H1) of this year amid a string of government policies to improve the business environment, the Ministry of Commerce said Thursday.

FDI into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, surged 28.7 percent year on year in yuan terms, or 33.9 percent year on year in U.S. dollar terms in H1. The growth pace was the highest in almost 10 years, and the FDI scale hit a record high for the same period, said Zong Changqing, an official with the ministry.

“China’s FDI growth in H1 beat market expectations, laying a solid foundation for achieving the country’s goal of keeping foreign investment stable for the whole year,” Zong told a press conference.

In H1, 23,000 foreign-invested companies were set up, a year-on-year increase of 47.9 percent, bringing the total number of foreign-invested firms to over 1.06 million, data from the ministry showed. Enditem