China's inflow in foreign direct investment rises, outbound investment dips

Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland, in actual use, expanded by 7.5 percent year on year to 68.63 billion yuan in May, said Gao Feng, spokesperson for the Ministry of Commerce, at a press conference on Thursday.

In U.S. dollar terms, the FDI inflow stood at 9.87 billion dollars, up by 4.2 percent year on year.

From January to May, the the country's FDI totaled 355.18 billion yuan, down 3.8 percent year on year, narrowing by 7 percentage points compared to the first quarter of the year.

During the period, the inflow to high-tech industries rose by 2 percent, with the information and e-commerce services sector up 42.3 percent and 67.9 percent, respectively.

Investment from members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations increased 10.1 percent year on year, while that from countries participating in the Belt and Road Initiative rose 6 percent.

The country has rolled out a string of policies to better invigorate and protect foreign investors, which advanced the growth of the FDI, the ministry said earlier.

At the meantime, China's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) edged down 1.6 percent year on year in the first five months of 2020, according to the Ministry of Commerce.

The ODI in 157 countries and regions stood at 296.27 billion yuan (about 42.2 billion U.S. dollars) during the period, said Gao Feng.

Chinese companies increased investment in countries along the Belt and Road during the first five months, with new investment up 16 percent year on year to reach 6.53 billion U.S. dollars.

The country's ODI mainly went to sectors including leasing and business services, wholesale and retail as well as manufacturing, according to the ministry.

The value of new contracted projects overseas reached 601.88 billion yuan, up 14.4 percent year on year.

During the period, the number of newly signed overseas projects each with a contract value exceeding 50 million U.S. dollars came in at 319, up 32 from the same period a year earlier. The total contract value of those projects amounted to 70.57 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for 82.3 percent of the total of the newly signed contracts.