The increase of actual use of foreign investment in China's western regions exceeded the nation's average by 128 percentage points in the first two months this year, said an official of the ministry of commerce on Sunday.

During the first two months, the western regions' actual use of foreign investment was US$1.393 billion, more than double over the same period of 2007. A total of 254 foreign companies were approved to invest in the region, said Ji Xiaofeng, a ministry official in charge of foreign investment management at the ongoing 12th Investment & Trade Forum for Cooperation between east and west China.

Ji attributed the increase to the nation's encouraging policy for foreign investment to the middle and western regions. She said the ministry was advocating a transfer of foreign investment from the eastern regions to the western areas and encouraging local governments to use the investment in an innovative way.

She said the ministry would continue improving regulations on foreign acquisition and merger and establish an anti-dumping investigation mechanism. Foreign investors would be welcome to participate in reforms of state-owned companies.

According to statistics available, a quarter of the nation's tax revenue came from foreign invested companies at present. By the end of February, the number of foreign invested companies accumulated to 637,000 nationwide and the amount of the actual use of foreign investment reached US$781.1 billion.

During the first two months, 4,372 foreign investors came to China and the actual use of foreign investment rose 75 percent to US$18.1 billion.

(China Daily April 7, 2008)