Official: China "willing" to encourage foreign M&A
17 July 2007
China is willing to encourage multinationals to invest in China through mergers and acquisitions, which are at an early stage in the country but are becoming a major trend in foreign investment, the vice minister of commerce, Liao Xiaoqi, said, Caijing reported (in Chinese). Overseas acquisitions are preferable to foreign direct investment, Liao said, because they seldom require new land for expansion in an economy already troubled by excess industrial capacity. In 2006 M&A accounted for less than US$5 billion, or 2.5% of total foreign investment in China.