Shanghai contracted about 10.72 billion US dollars of overseas investment from January to November2004, up 9.18 percent, the Shanghai Overseas Investment Work Committee said Sunday.

Of this amount 5.80 billion US dollars was honored by the end of November, a 14.2 percent from the same period of the previous year.

Shanghai-based overseas-funded companies reported 934.1 billionyuan (112.5 billion US dollars) of sales and earned 61.63 billion yuan (7.43 billion US dollars) of profits in the January-November period, up 31.3 percent and 56.5 percent, respectively, year on year.

These companies added about 4.05 billion US dollars of investment in the 11 months, accounting for 37.8 percent of the total contracted overseas investment in the same period.

Some 4.2 billion US dollars of foreign investment went to the service sector, accounting for 39.16 percent of the total.

Of the foreign-funded projects approved in the 11 months in Shanghai, there were 30 regional headquarters of multinationals, 14 investment companies and 34 research and development centers, according to the committee.

The total number of such foreign-funded institutions in Shanghai stood at 86,105 and 140 respectively.

Source: Xinhua