China continues to attract good inflows of foreign direct investment, with $3 trillion of forex reserves.
It clocked growth of 32.9 per cent in FDI inflows year-on-year in March to $12.52 billion. FDI in China has increased this year, with a 29.4 per cent year-on-year rise in the first quarter to $30.34 billion, ministry of commerce, spokesman Yao Jian said on Tuesday.
FDI inflow in March was significantly higher than February's take of $7.8 billion.
Compared with 1,156 new foreign-funded enterprises in February, 2,538 new foreign-invested enterprises were approved in March, up 10.5 per cent from the same period last year.
China approved 5,937 new foreign-invested companies in the first quarter, up 8.8 per cent year on year.
By the end of March, China had approved 716,578 foreign-invested companies and used $1.08 trillion of FDI.
FDI in China increased 17.4 per cent year on year in 2010, registering a total of $105.74 billion, boosting the forex reserves to $3 trillion, which is the highest in the world.
As its forex reserves grew manifold, China now is stepping up its outbound direct investment which stood at $8.51 billion in the first quarter, up 13.2 per cent year on year.
This brings China's cumulative outbound non-financial direct investment to $267.3 billion by March-end, Yao said.
China's outbound direct investment rose 150 per cent both in Australia and the European Union in the first quarter, Yao said.
About $1.2 billion, or 14.1 per cent of the total outbound direct investment, was channelled into company mergers, mostly in the manufacturing sector, in the first quarter, he said.
China's contracted projects overseas reported $16.98 billion in business revenue in the first quarter, up 2.9 per cent year on year and new contract value stood at $30.95 billion in the first quarter, up 16.7 per cent year on year.
Contracted business projects declined in the Middle East and northern Africa due to unrest there, Yao said.
China sent about 93,000 labourers overseas in the first quarter, about 10,000 more than the same period last year.
About 769,000 Chinese labourers were stationed overseas during the period, nearly 90,000 less than the same period last year, Yao said, adding the number of Chinese labourers in Africa dropped by about 24,000 year on year to 173,000 at the end of March.
