China's FDI up for fifth consecutive month in December

The amount of foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose for the fifth consecutive month in December, up 103 percent year on year to 12.1 billion U.S. dollars, said Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce on Friday. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

This brought the country's FDI to 90.03 billion U.S. dollars in2009, down 2.6 percent from that in 2008.

The government approved the establishment of 23,435 overseas-funded ventures in 2009, down 14.8 percent from a year earlier. In December alone, <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />China approved 2,835 such companies, representing a year-on-year increase of 10.7 percent.

Yao said the 2009 FDI was mainly directed into manufacturing, despite a decrease of 6.26 percent year on year. This sector attracted 46.77 billion U.S. dollars FDI in 2009, accounting for 51.95 percent of the total FDI.

The service sector attracted 37.87 billion U.S. dollars, down 0.67 percent from that in 2008, and accounting for 42.06 percent of the total.

Actual use of the FDI in the real estate sector stood at 16.8 billion U.S. dollars in 2009, a decrease of 9.65 percent annually.     

In 2009, China's non-financial investment in overseas markets was 43.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 6.5 percent year on year.

Of the total investment in overseas markets, 40.4 percent or 17.5 billion U.S. dollars was used in mergers and acquisition, technology introduction, marketing, and energy and resources, said Yao.