China Ends Year with Strong Financial Indicators

Filed in archive Private Equity on December 21, 2005

Beijing Technology and Business University (BTBU) issued the "International Trade Investment Risks Index" (ITIRI) and China is among the list of 10 countries and regions with the lowest investment risks. This news coupled with the blog report from China Business Services, which claims that in a restatement of GDP growth, following a national Census, China is now the sixth largest economy (up from seventh). It may even leapfrog to the number four position after publication of the 2005 figures.

Reports indicate that the GDP has increased by US$285 billion, or about 17 per cent -- with much of the growth coming from previously unreported activity in the private economy, and especially in the service sector.

China joins Ireland, Hong Kong, Singapore, Sweden and Finland in this preferred list category. According to the report, with the exception of China, the other nine countries with the lowest investment risks are all high-income ones.

The report, edited by BTBU world economy research center, covered 75 countries and regions in Europe, North America, Asia, Latin America, Africa and Oceania, all of which account for 94% of the world's total GDP, 91% of the world's total exports and 89% of the world's direct investment.

China's inclusion on this preferred list is unexpected for many multinationals. After all, this is a mere footnote to those foreign invested enterprises, which continue to reap huge returns from China. It is noteworthy that between 1990 and 2004, the profits remitted by overseas investors in China stood at about US$250 billion, according to Chen Jinhua, president of the Chinese Association of Entrepreneurs and also president of the Chinese Federation of Enterprises.

Based on data from Chinese Association of Entrepreneurs, by the third quarter of 2005, foreign invested enterprises cumulatively established in China reached over 557,600 in number and the amount of total foreign investment surpassed US$600 billion. Look for bigger FDI numbers in 2006. And by the way, Zero2ipo confirms that most foreign venture capital firms had internal return ratios of over 100 percent for 2005.