Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China continued it slight down trend in the first three quarters, data from the Ministry of Commerce showed on Friday.

China drew US$43.25 billion of FDI over the period, a 2.11 percent decrease from the previous year, the Ministry said in a statement on its website. Contracted direct investment to China, which indicates the future trend of FDI flow, rose nearly 21.81 per cent over last year to US$130.03 billion.

The ministry said China approved 32,223 new foreign-invested ventures between January and September, with a meagre growth of 0.03 per cent year-on-year.

For September alone, the country realized FDI of US$5.25 billion, a 3 per-cent increase over last year. The figure was based on a comparison with earlier data as the ministry did not provide the statistics for the month alone.

Foreign investment, a key driver of China's booming export sector, has eased in recent months, but analysts believe the short-term declines cannot prove a major trend in FDI inflows.

Lu Jinyong, an investment researcher at the University of International Business and Trade, said the decline is natural after the great increase last year.

The total FDI grew 14 per cent in 2004 to a record US$61 billion. Contracted investment was US$153.5 billion in all of 2004, up one-third year-on-year.

Lu admitted that the 2 per cent Chinese currency revaluation may have some impact on investment in China, but the country still remains attractive to foreign enterprises.

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development said in a recent report that global FDI is increasingly shifting towards the developing world as multinational companies seek new investment opportunities and cost reductions in fast-growing economies like China's.

(China Daily October 15, 2005)