China's foreign investment jumps 27%

Direct overseas investment by Chinese companies jumped 27% in 2004, year-on-year, to US$3.6bn, the Ministry of Commerce said. Contracted investment overseas, an indicator of future spending plans, soared 77.8% to US$3.7bn. According to the data more than two-thirds of the actual overseas investment, or about US$2.5bn, was spent on equity in foreign companies. Data also showed that many of the investments were focused on acquiring footholds in scarce energy and mineral resources, with 52.8% of total actual overseas investment concentrated in the mining sector. Nonetheless foreign investment into China still far outweighs the outflow of Chinese funds with the amount of overseas investment in 2004 surpassing the US$60bn mark.