China sees year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent in FDI

DNA

BEIJING, July 17 : China saw a year-on-year increase of 8.4 percent in foreign direct investment (FDI) in the second quarter of 2020, China Economic Net reported on Friday.

The actual investment from the United States grew 6 percent year on year in the first half of 2020.

Meanwhile, China’s nonfinancial outbound investment to countries and regions involved in the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) surged 19.4 percent year-on-year to $8.12 billion, the Chinese Ministry of Commerce (MOC) announced.

The 8.4% increase in FDI in Q2 made an obvious comeback when compared with Q1 (10.8% decrease).

It demonstrates that the expectations and confidences of the foreign investors remain stable and positive after China has rapidly contained the coronavirus epidemic and taken the lead in resuming work and production.

According to data released by MOC, China’s actual use of FDI in April 2020 reached 70.36 billion yuan ($10.14 billion), up 11.8 percent year on year.

In May, China saw FDI in the nonfinancial sector surge 7.5 percent on a yearly basis to 68.63 billion yuan ($9.87 billion).

In June alone, the total foreign investment actually utilized climbed 7.1 percent year on year to 117 billion yuan ($16.72 billion).

A total of 472.18 billion yuan (around 67.93 billion U.S. dollars) in FDI was used in the first six months of 2020, a year-on-year decrease of 1.3 percent, narrowing by 2.5 percentages than that in the first five months.

In terms of industries, FDI into the high-tech service sector saw faster expansion, with the sector’s actually utilized FDI rising 19.2 percent year on year.

FDI in services of information, inspection and detection, and R&D and design, surged by 20.9 percent, 8.7 percent and 35.7 percent, respectively.

In terms of source of FDI, the actual investment from China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Singapore and the United States climbed in H1 2020, up 4.2 percent, 7.8 percent and 6 percent year on year, respectively.

Chinese President Xi Jinping said the fundamentals of China’s long-term sound economic growth have not changed and will not change, in a reply letter to global CEOs on July 15, 2020.

He also pledged that China will keep deepening reform and expanding opening-up, and provide a better business environment for the investment and development of Chinese and foreign enterprises.

To ensure the stability of foreign investment, China’s related government departments have rolled out a series of policies and regulations, MOC added.