China had a direct foreign investment (FDI) of US$30.26 billion in the first half of this year, up 34.33 per cent year-on-year, the latest statistics from the Ministry of Commerce show.

Contracted foreign capital increased 40.25 per cent over the same period of last year to US$50.96 billion and the number of newly approved foreign-invested companies rose 22.3 per cent to 18,877 in this period.

Negatively affected by the SARS outbreak in mid-April, FDI in June rose by a mere 2.48 per cent from last June to US$6.98 billion and the number of newly established foreign-invested companies totalled only 3,702 in the month, up just 0.79 per cent from last June.

Experts said the SARS outbreak could have cost US$1 billion FDI in the second quarter.

But they said it will soon come back and China's FDI is still likely to reach its target of US$60 billion this year.

Contracted foreign investment, an indicator of future trends, rose a still robust 34.67 per cent year-on-year to US$12.74 billion in June.

Vice-Premier Wu Yi yesterday promised foreign-invested companies that the Chinese Government will try to create better and safer business environment.

The State Council, China's cabinet, is working hard to co-ordinate between various departments and especially to solve policy conflicts between the central government and local governments, she told representatives of some giant multinational corporations yesterday at a meeting.

Wu said the Ministry of Commerce is preparing to unify present rules on foreign-invested investment companies in order to facilitate their activities in China.

The Chinese Government is also taking great efforts to crack down on smuggling, counterfeiting and other forms of infringement on intellectual property rights, she said.

(China Daily 07/16/2003 page1)

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