Foreign Economic and Technological Cooperation
2 min readForeign Economic and Technological Cooperation
Since the 1950s，China has provided economic aid to developing countries.Since the adoption of the policy of reform and opening to the outside world，China has quickened its pace of foreign aid，involving agriculture，forestry，water conservancy，light industry，textiles，food，power，machinery，chemicals，transportation，culture，education，public health and public utility projects.Some of them are large and medium-sized，while others are small projects featuring less investment，but quick and high economic returns.By 1999，China had aided more than 130 countries and regions，and completed 1500 foreign-aid projects.
Contracted projects and labor service cooperation with foreign countries are brand-new undertakings developed since the initiation of reform and opening to the outside world.To date，China has such undertakings in 187 countries and regions. In 1999，the contracted capital agreed to in newly signed contracts for overseas engineering projects or labor services reached 13 billion US dollars-worth；completed turnover amounted to 11.2 billion US dollars-worth；and more than 380 000 laborers had been sent abroad.
China has also made initial progress in making investments abroad.China has more than 160 foreign investment markets，and 5793 investment enterprises outside Chinese territory.China’s total agreed investments have come to 6.5 billion US dollars-worth.These overseas investment enterprises are engaged in a wide range of businesses，including foreign trade，real estate investment，information consultancy，finance，insurance，catering，tourism，contracting for labor services，culture，education，public health and technology development.
Utilizing Foreign Capital
China absorbs foreign capital through foreign loans，direct foreign investment and other investment by foreign business people（international leasing，compensation trade，processing and assembling）.So far，foreign business people from more than 170 countries and regions have made investments in China.Since the founding of the first Sino-foreign joint venture in 1980，China has taken the utilizing of foreigcapital as an important aspect of basic state policy，and great efforts have been made to promote it.In the beginning Sino-foreign joint ventures first entered the processing industry，and later they expanded toward the basic industries and export-oriented enterprises，commerce，finance，information，consultation，real estate，and other fields.
Though most Sino-foreign enterprises are located in the coastal cities，some of them have gradually settled down in the inland cities.In recent years，thanks to the constant improvement of China’s investment environment，some international consortiums and transnational companies have come to China，one after another.Ofthe 500 top transnational companies in the world，more than 300 have invested in China.Foreign investments have become an important capital source for China’s economic construction.In 1999，direct foreign investments in real terms totaled 40.3 billion US dollars；and projects with direct foreign investment numbered 16918.Between 1979 and 1999，of foreign capital utilized by China，the accumulative total of direct foreign investment came to 305.9 billion US dollars.By 1999，China had approved the founding of 342000 foreign-funded enterprises，of which over 100000 have gone into operation.Most of them have made satisfactory profits.Growth of Actually-used Foreign Capital.
