In the first eight months of this year, China signed projects involving a contractual foreign investment totaling 62.3 billion US dollars and actually used 34.4 billion US dollars, according toa released provided by the State Development Planning Commission at the Macro-Economy Forum on China-ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations).

Both statistics were respectively 42 percent and 26 percent up from the same period last year.

Last year, China actually used 47 billion US dollars of overseas investment.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation, China approved 24,771 overseas-financed businesses in the first nine months of the year, up 33.4 percent year-on-year.

China's success in attracting overseas investment despite a sluggish world economy and falling international investment is attributed to such factors as the country's honestly fulfilling its commitments to the World Trade Organization (WTO), including lowering tariffs, lifting restrictions on overseas investors and improving the legal environment.

The three-day forum, held in Kunming, capital of southwest China's Yunnan Province, concluded Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency October 29, 2002)