The eastern province of Jiangsu had absorbed 103 billion U.S. dollars of foreign funds to boost its economic growth by the end of last year, according to the Jiangsu Provincial Foreign Trade and Economic Bureau.

In 2005 alone, the province used 13.18 billion U.S. dollars in foreign funds, a year-on-year rise of 29.2 percent.

Last year, Jiangsu approved 149 foreign-financed projects with each involving an investment of 30 million U.S. dollars, 112 projects with an investment of over 50 million U.S. dollars for each and 59 projects with an investment of 90 million U.S. dollars for each, according to a bureau official.

The projects mainly cover the fields of electronics, automobiles, energy resources, machinery and chemistry.

Foreign investment has also been channeled into Jiangsu's service sector, such as development of medicines, international logistics, storage services, urban infrastructure construction and commercial businesses last year.

The province approved 1,128 foreign-funded businesses in the service sector, involving a total contractual value of 7.56 billion U.S. dollars. The province used 1.7 billion U.S. dollars of foreign funds last year.

Jiangsu Province approved 25 foreign-funded research and development centers and software designing firms in the fields of IT, medicine and chemistry last year, with a combined investment totaling 120 million U.S. dollars.

Source: Xinhua