By Wang Lan (China Daily)
Updated: 2007-10-24 11:07

Foreign investment in Shanghai's service sector is increasing at a brisker pace than in other industries as the city tries to revamp its industrial structure.

In the fist three quarters, the aggregate contractual value of foreign investment in Shanghai's service industry accounted for 62.8 percent of the total, up 32.8 percentage points from 2003, according to the latest figures from the Shanghai Municipal Foreign Economic and Trade Commission (SMFETC).

The municipal government said it is trying to bring more foreign capital to the service industry and hi-tech companies to push forward an industry upgrade in the city.

The latest figures reflect the city's drive to increase foreign investment to its service sector, including to banking, securities and insurance.

The Shanghai government said it is not only focused on increasing the scale of foreign investment, but also its quality and structure.

Figures released by the SMFETC show that, in the first three quarters, the contractual value of foreign investment in real estate totaled $1.96 billion, down 19.5 percent from a year earlier.

Falling investment in property is partly due to regulatory action taken by the municipal government to curb excess speculation in the sector.

There is growing enthusiasm among foreign investors for Shanghai's booming service sector, including information and financial services and logistics.

In the first nine months, foreign investment increased a combined 42.4 percent in the computer services and software industry, followed by financial services and logistics, which rose 26.7 and 5.5 percent.

The contractual value of the service sector rose 2.4 percent from the previous year.

The high-value added manufacturing industry in Shanghai also saw a big development in the past year. Economists said the rapid development of this sector was also considered an important factor to the industrial upgrading of the city. In the first nine months, total foreign investment in the city's high-value added manufacturing industry increased $2.4 billion, up 38.5 percent from the year before.