With its own economic and social development, and the improvement of investment environment, Guangdong creates good condition for foreign investors. More and more investors are willing to come here. In 2006, the actual foreign investment reached USD 14.51 billion, with an increase of 17.4% over the previous year, being the champion of Mainland China. Up to now, Guangdong has actually absorbed foreign investment of USD 289.5 billion, taking up one quarter of the total of Mainland China.

The industrial structure of foreign investment continues to be optimized. In 2006, the actual absorption of foreign direct investments of the primary, secondary and tertiary industry was USD 0.12 billion, USD 10.85 billion, and USD 3.54 billion respectively. The investment in manufacturing industry had a massive increase. The newly approved foreign investment projects in service industry reached 3,498 for the whole year, increasing by 41%. The service sectors drawing more foreign investment include six businesses such as wholesale and retail, leasing, business service, scientific research, technical service and geological exploration, real estate, conveyance of information, computer service and software, transportation, storage and post.

The investment from developed countries is on a rapid increase. The paid-up investment from Singapore, Spain, America, Canada and Australia increased by 50.7%, 411.7, 26.8%, 49.1% and 46.1% respectively. More large-scale foreign enterprises and projects come to Guangdong for investment. Foreign-funded R&D centers (with independent legal qualification) on electronic information, medicine and automotive technology develop quickly. Service industry, represented by logistics, exhibition service, advertising, and consulting has embarked on a strong momentum of development. Development zone, mountain areas, east & west wings of the province also witness a stronger tendency of foreign investment.

Till the end of 2006, 181 corporations of the World Top 500 have established 649 enterprises in Guangdong, along with 68 newly established enterprises in 2005, including the following enterprises: Automobile projects of Toyota, Honda, Nissan settled in Guangzhou; Walmart settled in Shenzhen; Shell¡¯s petrochemical project in South China Sea settled in Huizhou; five auto-fittings factories of Toyota, Nissan, Honda, Hitachi, German¡¯s BSF established in Foshan; Emerson Electronic Corporation entered Yunfu; ChinaÕs headquarter of Osram, one of the two world famous lamp manufacturers, subjected to Siemens Corporation Group, settled in Foshan.Quite a few transnational corporations, such as Samsung, Sony and Seagate, has now sharply increased their investment after probing stage, and has established their own R&D centers in Guangdong. By the end of 2006, foreign investment enterprises had established 261 R & D centers in Guangdong, among which are Japan¡¯s Mitsubishi, Honda and Hitachi, US¡¯s Dupont and P & G, France¡¯s Thomson and Korea¡¯s Samsung. Now in the eyes of these corporations, Guangdong is no longer a processing factory, but an important base to compete in international market as well as broaden Chinese domestic market.

During the ¡°11th Five-Year Plan¡± period, Guangdong will have a steady increase in absorbing direct foreign investment. The actual foreign investment is expected to reach USD$ 10 to 12 billion annually on average, and the actual investment in service industry will increase by 15% annually on average, amounting to a total value of USD$ 18.3 billion. It is anticipated that in 2010 the mountainous regions and the wing areas of the province will take up 15% to 20% of the actual foreign investment. Furthermore, Guangdong will expand the scale of absorbing investment with an emphasis on the developed regions such as Europe, America and Japan, and the world¡¯s top 500 multi-national corporations. Guangdong intends to have 80 to 100 new investment projects per year.

(Source:  Department of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation of Guangdong Province)