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By Yin Lei

China utilized RMB 496.71 billion of foreign capital by the end of July 2018, up by 2.3 percent year-on-year, according to an update of the Ministry of Commerce on Thursday.

This growth represented a 1.2 percentage points increase from that in the first half of 2018.

In July, foreign investors channelled RMB 50.42 billion to fund the establishment of 5,648 companies in China, the largest monthly amount in 2018.

For the first seven months, foreign capital financed a total of 35,239 newly established companies in China, up by 99.1 percent.

Of the above total amount of RMB 496.71 billion, 30.4 percent, or RMB 150.81 billion, found their way to manufacturing companies, an increase of 8.8 percent. High-tech manufacturing sector got RMB 48.78 billion of inbound capital, up by 31 percent, while the high-tech service sector used RMB 58.1 billion.

By sectors, electronic and telecommunications equipment, computer and office equipment, and healthcare device, instrument and equipment respectively saw an increase of 40.3 percent, 63.7 percent and 149.2 percent in this regard.

The 11 pilot free trade zones, where 5,186 foreign-invested businesses were founded in the 7-month period, saw the highest growth in foreign capital utilization. Together they used RMB 65.84 billion of foreign investments, up by 30 percent.

Foreign capital unitization rose thanks to China’s adjustments to its foreign investment policies since 2017, which improved the domestic business environment and facilitated the entry of inbound investments, commented Zhang Fei, a researcher of the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation, in an interview with the Shanghai Securities News.

Analysts foresee more foreign investments in the future. At the end of July, China just put into effect a new shorter negative list for foreign investments, opening up more sectors to capital from across the world.