Reference:CGTN | Updated:23 July 2021
China saw 23,000 foreign-funded enterprises newly established in the country during the first half of 2021, a surge of 47.9 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said on Thursday.
The increase brought the number of foreign-funded enterprises in China to 1.06 million by the end of June. In the first six months of 2021, China's actual use of foreign capital exceeded 607 billion yuan ($93 billion), an increase of 28.7 percent year on year, the ministry said.
Overall, business operations in China have rapidly stabilized and improved in the first half of the year, and "high-quality business development achieved new results, which made new contributions to the sustainable and healthy development of the national economy," said Guo Tingting, head of the Comprehensive Department of the MOFCOM.
While the country's non-financial outbound direct investment (ODI) decreased 3.7 percent year-on-year – amounting to 348.8 billion yuan – in the first half of the year, ODI to the countries along the Belt and Road increased by 8.6 percent. During the period, China invested $47 billion in overseas economic and trade cooperation zones, which contributed a combined $6 billion in taxes and fees to the investment destinations and created 380,000 jobs locally, Guo said.
Foreign trade also grew rapidly in the first half of the year. China's trade value topped 18.1 trillion yuan, in which total trade volume saw a year-on-year increase of 27.1 percent, exports a rise of 28.1 percent, and imports 25.9 percent.
Trade with major trading partners achieved rapid growth. Imports and exports to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, the European Union and the U.S. increased by 27.8 percent, 26.7 percent, and 34.6 percent, respectively. Countries along the Belt and Road also saw a year-on-year increase of 27.5 percent in trade.
Domestically, consumption continued to bounce back. In the first half of the year, the retail sales of social consumer goods were 21.2 trillion yuan, an increase of 23 percent year-on-year, according to the MOFCOM, adding that consumption's contribution to economic growth reached as high as 61.7 percent.
The retail sales of goods increased by 20.6 percent, of which automobiles, cosmetics and jewelry increased by 30.4 percent, 26.6 percent and 59.9 percent, respectively. The recovery of service consumption also has accelerated, with its proportion of household consumption expenditure increased by 3.2 percentage points to 52.5 percent. The catering sector has returned to the pre-COVID level, the ministry said.
New types of consumption, including online sales and 5G handset consumption, are booming. Online retail sales amounted to 6.1 trillion yuan, an increase of 23.2 percent, while 5G mobile phone shipments increased by 100.9 percent year on year in the first half of the year, according to the MOFCOM.
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