No foreign funds in any sector or industry has monopolized China's economy, let alone control China's economy, said Hu Jingyan, director of Foreign Investment Department of the Ministry of Commerce on January 15 in response to recent press reports saying foreign funds will pose threats to China's economic security.

Hu noted that foreign funds take up less than 3% of market shares in China's key industries, while foreign investment mainly focuses on high-tech and machinery and electronics industries, which witnessed the fastest growth in export.

Direct foreign investment used by China in 2004 totaled 60.6 billion US dollars, the figure stood at 60.3 billion US dollars in 2005, this year the amount is expected to keep at the same level with that of last year to reach around 60 billion US dollars, said Lu Jianhua, director of the ministry's Foreign Trade Department.

Although China has 14 trillion yuan of deposit savings and 800 billion US dollars' foreign exchange reserves, we should not think China should slow down the pace in introducing foreign investment, actually, the foreign investment fund used by China is far from enough, said Hu.

Currently, China's accumulated direct foreign investment amounted to 600 billion U.S. dollars, accounting for some 35% of the country's gross domestic product, a little bit higher than the world average level. But China's per head foreign investment stood at only 41 U.S. dollars, less than half of the world average level, according to Hu.

Hu urged the central government to implement stable and continuous policies in introducing foreign funds in order to remain competitive in attracting foreign investment as neighboring countries and regions are also stepping up efforts in alluring foreign funds.

Hu said the Ministry of Commerce would gradually open service industry to the outside world. In the meanwhile, he also encourages foreign investment companies to deal with China's bad assets.

By People's Daily Online