_News Center_China International Fair for Investment & Trade (CIFIT)

Despite the current financial crisis, China will continue to remain attractive to foreign investors, said Alessandro Teixeira, president of the World Association of Investment Promotion Agencies, at the 13th China International Fair for Investment and Trade in Xiamen, Fujian Province, on Monday.

Teixeira said the ongoing financial crisis has affected investments throughout the world. But China, compared to other countries, has handled the crisis well.

“China is still a very strong attractor of foreign direct investment (FDI), not just because of the competitiveness of Chinese economy globally, but also the size of its internal market,” he said.
Statistics provided by the Ministry of Commerce show that China received FDI of $43 billion in the first six months of this year, a drop of 17.9 percent from last year.

Teixeira pointed out that the steps the Chinese government has taken to stimulate new consumption in the internal market over the past few years, has been extremely effective in increasing China’s attractiveness to foreign investors. “Over the last 12 years, more than 300 million people have entered the consumer market,” he said.

“That’s very impressive because it creates a whole new market- one that is close to the entire population of the United States.”

In addition to these efforts to attract foreign investment, Teixeira continued to say how impressed he was with China’s steady expansion in its investment abroad in recent years.

Fan Chunyong, vice director of the China Industrial Overseas Development and Planning Association, was quoted by the China News Service as saying China’s outward direct investment (ODI) would for the first time surpass its FDI this year.

According to estimates from Standard Chartered Bank, China’s ODI should go from $150 billion to 180 billion in 2009, with foreign direct investment reaching about $80 to $100 billion.