China’s absorption of foreign investment in January-December 2018 mainly showed the following features:

1. The actual use of foreign capital hit a record high.

In January-December, 60,533 foreign invested companies were newly established, with an increase of 69.8% year on year; the actual use of foreign capital reached 885.61 billion yuan, increasing by 0.9% year on year (equivalent to US$134.97 billion, up 3% year on year. The statistics in the fields of banking, securities and insurance were not included, and similarly hereinafter).

In December, 5,830 foreign invested companies were newly established, with an increase of 20.5% year on year; the actual use of foreign capital reached 92.34 billion yuan, increasing by 24.9% year on year (equivalent to US$13.71 billion, up 23.2% year on year).

2. The manufacturing industry experienced rapid growth.

In January-December, the actually utilized FDI of manufacturing industry increased by 20.1% year on year, taking up 30.6%, 4.8 percentage points higher than that of last year. Among these, the actually utilized FDI of the hi-tech industry increased by 35.1% year on year.

3. The capital use in the central and western regions increased largely.

In January-December, the actually utilized FDI in the central region increased by 15.4% year on year, that in the western region increased by 18.5% year on year, and that in the pilot free trade zones increased by 3.3% year on year, taking up 12.1%.

4. The major foreign investment projects increased significantly.

In January-December, the number of the big FDI contractual projects above US$50 million reached 1,700, up 23.3% year on year, showing that the foreign investors’ confidence in China’s investment environment has not weakened. The actually utilized FDI through M&A increased by 28.4% year on year.

5. The actual investment growth of the main investment sources kept sound growth trend. .

In January-December, among the main investment sources, the actual input value from Singapore, South Korea, Japan, the UK, Germany and the US increased by 8.1%, 24.1%, 13.6%, 150.1%, 79.3% and 7.7% respectively year on year.

The actual input value of the countries along the Belt and Road routes, 28 EU members and the ASEAN increased by 13.2%, 22.6% and 13.8% respectively year on year.