Southern China's Guangdong Province has regained its position as No 1 foreign direct investment (FDI) receiving province, with US$10.01 billion flowing in last year.

Actual FDI in Guangdong grew by 34 per cent last year, sending the province to the top position while contractual FDI in Guangdong went up by 44 per cent to US$19.36 billion, said Liang Yaowen, director of the provincial department of foreign trade and economic co-operation.

Last year, more projects 62 in total funded by the world's top 500 firms set foot in Guangdong. A total of 166 of those firms had invested in 492 projects in the province by the end of last year.

Relatively large foreign-funded projects, referring to those with more than US$10 million investment each, accounted for 57 per cent of total FDI in Guangdong last year. A total of 11 foreign-invested research & development (R&D) centres came on stream last year, involved in sectors like electronic information, pharmaceuticals and automotive.

The further opening-up of the service sectors to Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions under the mainland-SAR Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement helped boost FDI into the service sectors in Guangdong, which totalled US$2.15 billion last year.

Existing foreign-invested firms in Guangdong continued to increase their investment last year, with their newly increased fund accounting for 39 per cent of FDI.

In light of the so-called "go abroad" national strategy, the provincial government approved 194 overseas investment projects of local firms last year, which involved pledged investment of US$1.19 billion.

Looking ahead, Huang said the goal of foreign trade growth for this year had been set at 7.9 per cent, with an unspecified increase in FDI.

Huang cited fluctuations in oil prices, uncertainty in exchange rates of major currencies, increasing international trade disputes and further opening-up in the rest of the country as some of the main challenges to the province in its foreign trade and FDI work.

Editor: Olivia