Promoting FDI in central, western regions is priority

With labor costs rising rapidly in coastal areas, more foreign companies looking to inland areas

Promoting foreign direct investment in the middle and western regions of China is a top priority, while in the eastern region the focus is to improve the efficiency of the use of foreign funds, the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.

"In recent years, foreign investment into central region and western region has been growing fast. Many multinational companies have directly entered markets in the western region when investing in China," said Huang Feng, deputy director-general of the ministry's foreign investment administration department.

Data from the ministry show that in 2012, foreign investment to the central and western regions accounted for 17.2 percent of the total nationwide, up 3.4 percentage points year-on-year.

From January to April, China received $38.34 billion in foreign direct investment, up 1.21 percent year-on-year. Of that amount, the western region received $3.11 billion, up 25.7 percent, and the central region received $3.22 billion, up 5.7 percent, according to figures from the ministry.

FDI to the eastern region declined 1.1 percent to $32.01 billion for the first four months.

As labor costs are increasing rapidly in the coastal areas of East China, more foreign companies are looking to the country's western areas.

"Although expanding fast, the investment to the central and western regions are still at a lower level, compared with that in East China. So boosting FDI in the western region is a priority," Huang said, adding that in future, the strategy of foreign capital investment in the eastern region is to improve the quality of utilization.