The SARS outbreak will not shake China's confidence or its economic progress and the country is still the world's most attractive investment environment, said Vice-Premier Wu Yi in Beijing Thursday.

Meeting with Stuart Levernick, vice-president of Caterpillar Investment Co. Ltd., Wu said that after the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), a few foreign commerce delegations had postponed or canceled visits to China, and some foreign workers had been called home, which was understandable.

Meanwhile, most foreign business people had stayed in China and joined in their Chinese colleagues in fighting against the epidemic and continuing normal production and management. Many foreign businesses had made donations to China's anti-SARS work, Wu said, expressing the Chinese government's gratitude.

Wu said the Chinese government had done everything to eradicate the disease as soon as possible and to protect the health and safety of everyone, including foreign business people.

She said, now that the situation was more stable and normal life was gradually resuming, the governments at all levels were taking measures to encourage foreign investment, including making more use of the Internet, solving problems for foreign businesses, and allowing more time for foreign investors unable to fulfill their duties on time because of SARS.

The Chinese government would eventually bring SARS under control, safeguarding foreign investors' health and safety and maintaining the country's economic growth, said Wu, adding that the unexpected outbreak had prompted China to improve the transparency and efficiency of its administration and foreign business people would make right choices in view of these facts.

Levernick briefed the vice-premier on his company's operations in China. He said Caterpillar, after years of good cooperation with China, regarded the country as its home, and it was natural to come back "home" at such a moment.

He said the trip demonstrated Caterpillar's strong confidence in investing in China, a rapidly growing market. Caterpillar would further expand in China and participate in the remolding of the country's state-owned enterprises, he added.

Caterpillar was the world's largest heavy equipment and engine manufacturer, and also one of the first US companies to invest in China. It participated in the construction on almost all of China's major projects since 1985, including the Three Gorges Dam Project, the Qinghai-Tibet Railroad, the transmission of natural gas from west China to its east and the diversion of water from the south to the north.

(Xinhua News Agency May 29, 2003)