Booming China drew $14.07 billion in foreign direct investment in the first quarter, up 7.49 per cent from a year earlier, as foreign businesses cashed in on the nation's cheap labour and growing middle class.
Contracted foreign investment, an indicator of future trends, soared 49.15 percent to $34.28 billion in the same period, the Commerce Ministry said in a statement on its Web site www.mofcom.gov.cn.
It did not give figures for the year through March.
Foreign-backed businesses have been an important driver of China's booming economy. Foreign firms, as well as those from Taiwan and Hong Kong, have poured money into China, hoping to tap the country's deep pool of cheap labour and its nascent but fast-growing consumer market.
But such investments have drawn scrutiny from politicians and labour groups in the United States, where "outsourcing" is a hot topic in the run-up to the presidential election in November.
Based on calculations using official data, actual FDI in March was around $5.8 billion, surpassing $4.2 billion in February and $4.1 billion in January.