China, witnessing its slowest growth in 25 years, attracted $126 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, up 5.6 per cent, with the majority invested in services and high-end manufacturing sectors of the world’s second biggest economy, Chinese Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng said on Sunday.
China will also further ease foreign investors’ access to service and high-end manufacturing sectors, Mr. Gao told the annual media conference on the sidelines of the parliament session here.
‘Will help firms innovate and upgrade’
Sectors of finance, education, culture and logistics will be opened wider to foreign capital, and restrictions on high-end manufacturing will be relaxed, Mr. Gao has said, adding, foreign investment will help China’s state-owned enterprises to innovate and upgrade.
China attracted a total of $126 billion of foreign capital in 2015, up 5.6 per cent over the previous year, with service and high-end manufacturing sectors attracting over 70 per cent of the total, he said.
Chinese officials say this is despite the slowdown of the economy, which recorded its slowest growth in a quarter century last year.
Economy
Chinese economy expanded by 6.9 per cent in 2015, lower than 7.3 per cent in 2014 and the weakest since 1990. The government has fixed a target of 6.5 to 7 per cent this year.
Foreign investors are shifting their focus to high-tech manufacturing and service sectors, Mr. Gao has said, describing the phenomenon as a “structural improvement.” He also expected the less-developed central and western regions to open up, thanks to the implementation of the One Belt, One Road Initiative.
“Those regions boast huge potential as only 16 percent of foreign investment went there in 2015,” Mr. Gao said.
Investment catalogue
China is formulating an investment catalogue to guide foreign investment in the regions and will build more trans-border economic cooperation zones, Mr. Gao has added.
China has been encouraging foreign investment since its reform and opening up more than three decades ago.
P2P lending
Also the Supreme People’s Court (SPC) said China’s court system handled a total of 1.42 million cases involving peer-to-peer (P2P) lending in 2015.
Those cases involved 820.75 billion yuan ($126.4 billion) the work report delivered by SPC president Zhou Qiang to the annual parliamentary session said.
Courts at all levels correctly recognised the differences between P2P lending and illegal fund-raising, concluding 58,000 cases involving illegal fund-raising, financial fraud and other crimes, and convicting 72,000 people, Mr. Zhou said.
