Outside interest in China as destination for foreign capital has increased over the past decade, after China entered the World Trade Organization (WTO), thanks to more favorable laws, regulations, and policies.

But, of equal importance have been the increased transparency and standardization, which have made it more convenient for foreign investors.

By the end of October, this year, China had more than 730,000 foreign-funded enterprises, with utilized foreign capital worth more than $1.1 trillion. This was a 126-percent leap in the 2001-2010 period, and has put China in the No 1 slot for years.

Polls by organizations involved in trade, such as the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, have shown that China has remained the top destination for overseas investment by multinationals for several years running.

During the same period, more foreign investment went into the service sector and technology.

The government has 100 categories for foreign capital in the service sector, compared to a total of 160 categories in service for the WTO.

By October, 46.9 percent of the utilized foreign capital had gone to the service sector, compared with just 25.6 percent back in 2000.

One result of this has been that, according to the National Statistics Bureau, China's economic output grew 9.4 percent year-on-year in first three quarters this year to 32.07 trillion yuan ($5.02 trillion).

This was more than three times of 2001's 9.6 trillion yuan, and the service industry accounted for 42 percent of GDP, compared with 34 percent 10 years ago.

On a related note, by the end of last year, 23.8 percent of China's high-technology companies were funded by foreign capital, according to the Ministry of Science and Technology.

China now has more than 1,400 foreign-funded R&D centers, more than 60 percent of which are in contact with global markets.

And, although only 3 percent of China's companies are foreign-funded, they play a very important role in economic growth. They contributed 26.3 percent to China's gross industrial output in the first three quarters, and 51.1 percent to its trade volume, and created more than 45 million jobs.

The author is director-general of the Department of Foreign Investment Administration of the Ministry of Commerce, China.