Over the past five years, around 30,000 to 40,000 new foreign investment projects have been approved in China every year, with an annual investment exceeding $60 billion.

The figures were 300 and $600 million respectively in the first five years after the country's adoption of the reform and opening-up policy in 1978. According to statistics released by the Ministry of Commerce, China absorbed $83.50 billion worth of foreign direct investment (FDI) last year, 91 times as much as that in 1983. The country has ranked No 1 among developing countries for 15 years in succession in terms of the scale of its FDI.

Foreign investment has long been a main fund source for the country's fixed asset investment. During the early period of reform and opening-up, in particular, the inflow of overseas investment did greatly help ease its serious fund shortage. At the same time, the rapid expansion of FDI also contributed a lot to the country's process of industrialization. Among all foreign investments, the industrial sector has taken more than 70 percent of the total.