A ship loads containers at a terminal in Qingdao, Shandong province. China is poised to open up its market further to foreign investment. [Photo/China Daily]

The Chinese authorities say the country is attracting the most foreign investment among developing countries as it eases access for foreign capital.

It's also reported that a growing number of Chinese enterprises are going out as China deepens reform and promotes overseas trade and economic cooperation.

Official data shows that China's actual use of foreign direct investment amounted to over $489 billion between 2013 and 2016.

That marked an annual growth of 3 percent.

Speaking at a news conference, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Commerce, Gao Feng, said that foreign capital inflow has been climbing steadily in China.

"As global transnational direct investment dropped 2 percent, China's actual use of foreign investment reached over 864 billion yuan, a year-on-year growth of 3 percent. Between 2013 and 2016, the number of China's newly-added foreign entities accumulated to more than 100,000. China attracted over $521 billion of foreign capital in the same period ranking the top among developing countries for 25 years."

The spokesperson added that foreign investment in China has seen improvement, both in quantity and quality, with growing foreign capital flowing into hi-tech industry.

Data suggests the hi-tech sector attracted 2 percent of the total foreign investment in 2016, while the number of R&D centers of multinational companies also exceeded 2,400.

"In 2016, the fixed asset investment of foreign entities grew at a rate higher than the 7.5 percent of national average. Foreign entities also accounted for about 44 percent of the countries' exports and contributed to 18 percent of tax revenue. The foreign entities, less than 3 percent of China's total companies, also created almost half of trade revenue and one fifth of fiscal revenue."

Meanwhile, Chinese investments overseas are also improving in amount and quality, as China increases services and provides guarantee to innovation and overseas cooperation.

As Gao Feng said, China's investment overseas ranked second in the world in 2015 and 2016; by the end of last year, China's investment overseas totaled $5 trillion.

"From 2012 to 2016, China's contracted engineering projects overseas achieved a total turnover of $710 billion, marking an annual average growth of 9 percent. China has become a major engineering contractor in the world."

It is said Chinese enterprises from sectors including steel, cement, and automobiles are accelerating pace in building manufacturing bases overseas, spreading Chinese equipment, standards, and services to the world.

The Ministry of Commerce said they also have plans to further expand the effort to other sectors.