Overseas direct investment by China's non financial sector
surged 280 percent to US$2.68 billion in the first quarter of this
year, a source with the Ministry of Commerce said on Tuesday.
The source said China's non-financial overseas direct investment
was mainly in Asian countries and came to US$1.32 billion or
49.2 percent of the total.
The investment in Latin America alone amounted to US$930 million
making up 34.9 percent of the total and ranking second.
The investment in Europe hit US$300 million, accounting for 11.3
percent of the total, while the country's investment in Africa
stood at US$100 million which is 3.8 percent of the overall figure.
.
China's investments focused on commerce and service,
manufacturing, mining, agriculture, forestry, animal husbandry and
the fishing industries as well as wholesale and retail sales,
communication and transportation, storage and postal services.
.
Meanwhile China has completed US$5.98 billion worth of business
volume in overseas engineering contracts in the first quarter of
this year -- up 65.2 percent from the same period of last year.
In total China signed engineering contracts valued at US$8.25
billion -- a 79.3 percent rise year on year. Among the contracts 28
were valued at above US$50 million each in the January-March period
compared with 12 of that size in the corresponding period of
2005.
The combined value of the 28 contracts totaled US$3.9 billion
which accounted for 47.3 percent of the total.
China's overseas engineering contracts were mainly associated
with house building, transportation, electronics and
telecommunications, petrochemical, power, manufacturing and
processing, water supplies and drainage projects.
The engineering projects were mainly in Hong Kong, Algeria,
Angola, Sudan, Nigeria and Singapore.
By the end of March 2006 China had signed US$194.2 billion worth
of overseas engineering contracts and completed business valued at
US$141.8 billion.
Over 3.5 million Chinese workers had been employed
overseas by the end of March this year.
(Xinhua News Agency April 26, 2006)