The booming Zhejiang Province in east China witnessed a decline in foreign direct investment, or FDI, for the first time since 1998.

 

According to the provincial statistics bureau, Zhejiang approved establishment of 662 foreign-funded enterprises in the first quarter of this year, involving US$4.7 billion in contracted foreign capital, down 32.2 percent and 31.2 percent respectively from the same period last year.

 

The three-month period also saw US$1.3 billion of foreign capital was actually used in the province, down 4.0 percent, the bureau said.

 

Analysts from the bureau ascribed the FDI decline to lack of land and shortage of power supply in the province.

 

(Xinhua News Agency May 8, 2006)