Northeast China's Heilongjiang province received nearly 482 million US dollars of overseas investment during the first half of this year, up 25.12 percent over 2003, the provincial commerce bureau said.

The province ratified 110 overseas-funded projects during the past six months, up 2.8 percent year-on-year, including 61 involved in equipment manufacturing and the energy, petrochemical,pharmaceuticals and foodstuff fields.

Fifty-three new projects -- 48 percent of the total -- were wholly owned by overseas investors.

Hong Kong led overseas investors, injecting 326 million dollarsinto Heilongjiang between January and June.

Local industrial sectors introduced 447 million dollars of the overseas investment during the period, followed by the service sector using 26.7 million dollars and the agriculture with 7.7 million dollars.

It is expected that local use of investment from overseas will continue to rise during the second half of this year.

Source: Xinhua