Chinese investment in US set to double, US official says
Participants in the Chinese New Year parade gather on January 29, 2012 in New York City.
Chinese investment in the US is likely to double "in a relatively short period of time," the China Daily reported on its website, citing a US official.
While current Chinese investment in the US only added up to $6 billion, lower costs and more local incentives meant there was potential for a "significant increase," Steven Olson — executive director of SelectUSA, a program under the U.S. Commerce Department to attract foreign investment — told the newspaper
China Daily reported Sunday from the US-China Cities Forum on Economic Cooperation and Investment that the two countries signed investment contracts worth $3.4 billion for a total of 42 projects in 21 sectors, including manufacturing, energy conservation and environmental protection, electronics, chemicals and pharmaceuticals.
The contracts include four Chinese firms investing $70 million in the US, according to the Ministry of Finance.
Speaking at a forum in Nanjing, eastern China — according to Xinhua, attended by 85 companies from 21 Chinese cities and 20 US cities — Olson said China was the fastest-growing source of foreign investment in the US.
Dow Jones painted the deals as further evidence of how the two economies were becoming more entwined.
The newswire cited Chinese finance minister Xie Xuren as saying that he hoped China and the US could expand cooperation as both countries restructured their economies and pushed ahead major reforms.
China and the US shared different resource advantages, and strongly complemented each other in economic development, Xie said, according to Xinhua.
Assistant Treasury Secretary Marisa Lago reportedly told the forum that the US welcomed investment from all countries including China, adding that the US hoped crossborder investment with China would grow.
China and the US are each other's second biggest trading partner, with current bilateral trade amounting to $446.6 billion.
Direct investment grew at an average annual rate of 53 percent from 2005 to 2010, the China Daily wrote.
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