Continuous Growth of FDI

China utilized $61.674 billion of foreign capital from January to November, 13.66 percent higher than a year earlier, the Ministry of Commerce announced. The growth rate is 2.51 percentage points higher than the figure for the first 10 months.

In November, foreign investment actually used in China surged 35.07 percent to $7.679 billion. The number of newly approved foreign-invested firms fell 9.06 percent to 3,593.

During the period, China approved 34,419 foreign-funded companies, down 7.02 percent year on year, the Ministry of Commerce said.

The average foreign investment size has expanded as the nation has sought to boost foreign capital utilization quality.

Tourism Boom in Tibet

Tibet is expected to receive a record-high 4.02 million tourists in 2007 with a year-on-year increase of 64 percent, said Zhang Qingli, Party chief of the Tibet Autonomous Region. He said it is estimated that the region's tourism revenue will hit 4.8 billion yuan ($649 million) this year, up 73.3 percent from last year.

Zhang attributed the rapid tourism growth to overseas promotional drives, as well as the opening of the Qinghai-Tibet railway and the third civilian airport in Nyingchi. Tibet now has 88 star-level hotels and 56 travel agencies.

First Oil Reserve Starts Operation

China said its first national oil reserve base was filled with crude oil on December 19. Located in eastern Zhejiang Province, the base has a planned storage space of 5.2 million cubic meters, said the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), China's top economic planning agency.

The commission said the base, built by China's largest oil refiner Sinopec, was accepted after a yearlong trial operation.

China started a state strategic oil reserve base program in 2004 as a way to offset oil supply risks and reduce the impact of fluctuating energy prices worldwide on China's domestic market for refined oil. The other three oil reserve bases, still under construction, are expected to be in use later this year or next year.

Stronger Oil Tanker Fleet

China's oil tanker fleet is being encouraged to grow faster to shoulder half of the transportation of imported oil by 2010, experts have said.

Recent studies by the Institute of Comprehensive Transportation affiliated to NDRC showed that Chinese-operated tankers should transport at least 60 percent of imported oil to ensure supplies. But domestic tankers last year shipped only 16 percent of oil imported by China.

The country imports more than 130 million tons of oil each year, about 90 percent of which is transported by ship. It has made China, the

world's second largest importer after the United States, vulnerable to transportation costs and other uncertainties.

Macao's New Casino

Macao's 28th casino resort MGM Grand Macao recently made its debut with world class performances only a street away from Wynn Macao, another Las Vegas-style casino resort, intensifying fierce competition in Macao's gaming industry.

The $1.25-billion project is a 50/50 joint venture between MGM Mirage of Las Vegas and Pansy Ho, daughter of the southern Chinese city's casino magnate Stanley Ho. The casino resort is also MGM Mirage's first in Asia. The new resort, claimed to target high-end customers, boasts 600 rooms and a casino with about 385 gaming tables, 890 slot machines and 16 private gaming salons. It also includes a convention space.

Official statistics show that in the first three quarters of 2007, Macao recorded gaming revenues of 58.31 billion patacas (around $7.5 billion), already more than last year's total revenue.