Economy

US welcomes Chinese investment: Locke

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2011-05-05 10:57

WASHINGTON - The United States welcomes Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) from China, which benefits the US economy, said Secretary of Commerce Gary Locke here on Wednesday.

Chinese FDI is "good for the American workers and good for American businesses," Locke said at the Woodrow Wilson Center days before the two countries hold their third round of Strategic and Economic Dialogue in Washington.

For decades, the United States has welcomed foreign investment with a market-based economy supported by a fair and transparent legal system, the most productive and best educated workers in the world, and vast natural resources, said Locke. "This openness has made the US the world's largest destination for FDI," he added.

And the Obama administration wants to keep the United States as the world's premier destination for the ideas, the innovations, and the capital of foreigners, said Locke.

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Foreign-owned companies employ some 5 million American workers across every single one of the 50 US states. "And increasingly, we are seeing more investment coming in from China," said Locke.

According to a report conducted by the US Asia Society and the Kissinger Institute on China and the Unite States at the Woodrow Wilson Center for scholars, Chinese FDI in the United States totaled $5 billion in 2010 and has been increasing rapidly in recent years.

Locke said that the US government believes more Chinese FDI in America is "a good thing."

Meanwhile, he said that China's openness has also provided opportunities for foreign investors to enjoy substantial profits from their China operations. "It has been a mutually beneficial relationship," he observed.