Hebei attracts $3.76b foreign investment in actual use during Jan-May

From January to May, the actual utilization of foreign capital in Hebei province reached $3.76 billion, increasing by 11 percent year-on-year, according to Hebei Provincial Department of Commerce.

Specifically, foreign direct investment (FDI) totaled $3.72 billion, an increase of 19.2 percent. Newly established and increased contractual foreign investment in the province reached $2.44 billion, up 9.6 percent.

During the period, the foreign capital mainly came with large-scale projects. There were 34 enterprises each with paid-in foreign capital of over $30 million, amounting to $2.6 billion with a year-on-year growth of 17.1 percent, which accounted for 69.1 percent of the total actual utilization of foreign capital in the province.

The foreign capital was mainly used in secondary industries. FDI invested in secondary industry reached $3.22 billion, up 26.5 percent and accounting for 86.5 percent of the province's total, an increase of 5 percent. Among them, FDI in the manufacturing sector was $2.82 billion, up 18.1 percent. In terms of contractual foreign investment, the province set up 40 new foreign-funded enterprises in the secondary industry, with total contractual foreign investment of $1.58 billion, a 20 percent increase, accounting for 64.9 percent of contractual foreign investment in the province. Among these, the contractual foreign investment for the six major industrial sectors (mainly equipment manufacturing) totaled $1.46 billion, increasing by 6.8 times.

The paid-in foreign investment of the high-tech industry gained a large rise. FDI in the high-tech industry reached $1.3 billion, with a year-on-year growth of 66.1 percent, 46.9 percentage points higher than the province's FDI growth and accounting for 34.9 percent of Hebei's FDI, a year-on-year increase of 9.8 percent. While in terms of contractual foreign investment, there were 11 newly established foreign-invested high-tech enterprises in the province, with contractual foreign capital of $780 million, an increase of 4.9 times, accounting for 31.8 percent of the contractual foreign capital in the province, an increase of 25.9 percentage points year-on-year.

During that time, the province's FDI came mainly from Asia and Europe, and was $2.86 billion and $240 million respectively, increases of 47.9 percent and 41.6 percent, accounting for 83.3 percent of the province's total.