Utilised foreign direct investment into China during the first nine months of 2002 totalled US$39.6bn, 22.5% higher than in the same period of last year, according to Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation figures quoted by People's Daily. Contracted investment over the period recorded a year-on-year rise of 38% to reach US$68.4bn and the number of new foreign- invested firms approved was 24,771, one-third higher than the year earlier.
By the end of August this year, Chinese authorities had approved a total of 411,495 FIEs, the newspaper said in a separate report. They employed more than 23m people, contributed 19% of the total tax revenue from industry and accounted for half of the nation's exports.