Chinese minister on new trends of overseas investment in China   2002-11-13 16:59:55 Chinese Minister of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation Shi Guangsheng said in Beijing on Wednesday that some new trends have taken shape in overseas investment in China over the past 13 years. The new trends include an increase in the average amount of investment for each overseas－funded project, a shift of focus of overseas capital from general manufacturing to basic industries, infrastructure, and new and high－tech industries, and a growing inflow of investments from large multinationals, Shi told a press conference on the sidelines of the ongoing 16th National Congress of the Communist Party of China. Over the 13 years, he said, actual overseas capital in China topped 400 billion US dollars, accounting for 97 percent of the total since the country initiated reform and opening up policies in the late 1970s. Actual investments and contractual capital from abroad for the first 10 months of this year reached 46.44 billion US dollars and 76.5 billion US dollars respectively, up 19.65 percent and 34.87 percent from the same period in 2001, Shi said. The average amount of capital for each overseas－funded project jumped to 2.65 million US dollars last year from 970,000 US dollars in 1989, he said, adding that more than 400 of the world's top 500 corporations have had operations in China. An increasing number of overseas investors have entered such sectors as foreign trade, telecommunications, finance and insurance, Shi added.