Intl investment favors China

BEIJING - Foreign investment still favors China and the trend to invest in China has not changed, said Commerce Minister Gao Hucheng on Sunday.

The global transnational direct investment dropped 8 percent in 2014, but China received more foreign direct investment with the volume ranking the first in the world for the first time, Gao said at the ongoing China Development Forum.

Meanwhile, the structure of foreign direct investment to China has improved with more flowing to the service sector, he said.

He said China will further widen market access to foreign investment, especially in the service sector and general manufacturing sector, improve management and revise laws on foreign investment this year, he said.

By the end of 2014, China had approved establishment of about 810,000 foreign-funded enterprises and actually used $1.5 trillion of foreign investment.

Gao said China will push forward construction of free trade zones. In five years, about half of China's cargo trade will be handled in free trade zones, while the ratio is about 30 percent now, Gao said.