CHINA: OPENING THE GOLDEN DOOR TO INVESTORS

摘要

Nobody was surpised when China overtook the United States last year to become the biggest recipient of foreign direct investment (FDI). After all, China had already led Asia and developing countries in the collection of FDI for a decade. In 2003, China had also leapfrogged Japan to become the world's third-largest importer of goods. Its resource-ravenous boom was eating up close to 30% of the world's total output of coal, steel and aluminum, and in the process pushing global commodity prices up by some 40%. Next to this, the transplant of manufacturing into China from Asia and the U.S. has continued apace. At the end of 2003, there were just under 500,000 foreign-invested enterprises in China-with con- tracted capital worth US$545.03 billion.