Hunan Province led central China in most foreign direct investment (FDI) in 2005, according to the provincial trade authorities.

The province approved 729 foreign-owned enterprises last year, involving 4.24 billion U.S. dollars in contracted foreign capital, up 62.8 percent over the previous year. It took in 2.07 billion U.S. dollars of FDI, up 46.14 percent year-on-year.

Last year, six more Fortune 500 companies entered Hunan, bringing the total number of such firms in the province to 38. The six included Mitsubishi Electric and Mitsui of Japan, Pepsi and Time Warner of the United States and Hutchison Whampoa based in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region.

Mittal Steel Company N.V., a steel company from the Netherlands, took over Hualing, a steel pipe maker, with an investment of 338 million U.S. dollars. So far this is Hunan's largest foreign capital acquisition project.

Source: Xinhua