| China's foreign direct investment rises 10.2% |
SHANGHAI, May 16 -- FOREIGN direct investment in China grew 10.2 percent in the first four months from a year earlier.
Spending climbed to USUS$20.4 billion, the Ministry of Commerce said today at a press briefing in Beijing. In April, foreign direct investment rose 5.5 percent to US$4.5 billion, it said, Bloomberg reported.
Low manufacturing costs and an increasingly wealthy consumer market of 1.3 billion people lure overseas companies to establish factories in China. Investment by foreign businesses has helped to push the nation's currency reserves to a record US$1.2 trillion, more than a fifth of the world's total.
The commerce ministry also said China and the US will hold talks in Geneva on June 5-8 aimed at resolving a US complaint to the World Trade Organization about China's protection of intellectual property rights.
Foreign manufacturers had more than 300,000 factories in China by the end of 2006, according to a report this month by HSBC Holdings Plc.
Illinois-based Caterpillar In., the world's largest maker of earthmoving equipment, this month opened a plant in the southern Jiangsu Province.
Korea Electric Power Corp will build two coal-fired power plants in the central province of Henan with China Datang Corp and the regional government for about US$1.03 billion, the Seoul-based company said last month.
The world's fourth-largest economy has expanded by at least 10 percent for each of the past four years. Foreign direct investment in China rose 4.5 percent last year to a record of US$63 billion.
The nation's foreign-currency reserves are the world's largest and mainly derived from the trade surplus, which last year reached a record US$177.5 billion.
Foreign direct investment has surpassed US$700 billion since China began accepting overseas' investors money, Commerce Minister Bo Xilai said in March.
Higher taxes for foreign companies will be phased in over five years from January. Foreign and local companies will eventually pay the same tax rate, 25 percent. Existing rates are 15 percent for overseas companies and 33 percent for local businesses.
China's economy grew 11.1 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier.
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