(Yicai Global) Sept. 8 -- Foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland in actual use this year will rise by a certain margin, in spite of a number of negative factors, and is likely to be more than expected, an official from the National Development and Reform Commission said today.

China remains attractive to global investors as it takes the lead in controlling the spread of the novel coronavirus and its economy continues to grow steadily, said Liu Xiaonan, director of the NDRC’s Department of Foreign Capital and Overseas Investment. The FDI will be affected somewhat, though, as multinationals become less able and less willing to invest amid the complicated global fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic.

China attracted USD100.74 billion in foreign capital between January and July, up 30.9 percent from the same period last year, according to the Ministry of Commerce. Foreign investment in the hi-tech manufacturing industry jumped 34.6 percent and that in the hi-tech service sector 40.6 percent.

The NDRC is loosening restrictions on market access to overseas investors by paring back its negative lists, which restrict foreign investment in certain sectors, bringing in more free trade zones and lifting other limits to treat international and domestic firms more equally, Liu said.

Editor: Kim Taylor