BIZCHINA / Center
Service industry to cash in on FDI
(China Daily)
Updated: 2007-01-16 09:31
The service sector will be the new focus to attract foreign investors
this year, according to a senior commerce official.
"We will take the service sector as a new focus in attracting foreign
direct investment (FDI) in 2007 to optimize China's foreign investment
structure," Minister of Commerce Bo Xilai said yesterday at the national
commerce working conference.
A billboard for major multinational companies investing in Nanjing, the
capital of East China's Jiangsu Province, at an exhibition in the city.
[newsphoto]
Official statistics showed that the service industry accounted for some
41 percent of China's total gross domestic product in 2006, compared with
the global average of 68 percent.
Bo said China should use foreign investment to upgrade and reform China's
service sector.
"Learning from the experience of developing China's manufacturing sector,
we must cash in on the opportunities of international investment to
transform the service industry," he said.
The growth of FDI in the service sector emerged as a trend last year. FDI
in China, excluding financial sectors such as banks and insurance, hit
$63 billion last year, an increase of 4.47 percent from a year earlier,
while FDI to the service sector increased 21 percent year-on-year.
The government will also encourage foreign investment to some high-end
manufacturing sectors this year by relaxing or scrapping restrictions on
foreign investors' access to some industries, Bo said.
"The move is expected to attract more foreign investment to the high-end
sectors and to boost the upgrade of domestic sectors," Bo said.
The Chinese government's current policies on foreign investment reflect
the value it places on the quality and efficiency of foreign investment
flows, rather than just the pursuit of volume, said Lu Jinyong, an
investment researcher at the University of International Business and
Economics.
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