BVI is the second investor in Shanghai's economy

White Paper on the Environment for Foreign Investment in Shanghai, that was released last week, gives some information about the city's main overseas direct investors.

Hong Kong, the leading investor in the economy of the Republic of China, is also investing in the projects of China's largest city Shanghai - the leader of the country by economic growth, with population of about 17,420,000 and GDP increase in the first half of 2006 by 12.6 percent from the same period of last year. The amount of Hong Kong investments into Shanghai's projects is US$3.1 billion, which makes up to 22.6 per cent of the city's total foreign direct investments.

Being the main investor in Shanghai for several years, Hong Kong is traditionally followed by British Virgin Islands, which holds the second position in the list by the amount of direct foreign investments in Shanghai city. Another offshore jurisdiction, Cayman Islands, is in the third place, according to the White Paper. It should be noted that, although BVI is the second by offshore investments into Shanghai city projects, among merely foreign investors it holds the first position, since Hong Kong still retains its status of Special Administrative Region of China.

Hong Kong and British Virgin Islands are both keeping the highest positions by the amount of foreign direct investments not only in the most developed regions, such as Shanghai, but in the whole country. Detailed information on investments of Hong Kong and British Virgin Islands in country's economy is listed in the blog BVI is again the 2nd to have invested in China.