BEIJING (Reuters) - Foreign direct investment (FDI) in China is likely to remain stable in 2017, with its share of global FDI expected to stay at about 8 percent, government officials said on Friday.
"Our share will not fall, it may even increase," said Liu Hongkuan, an official with the National Development and Reform Commission, referring to FDI.
But the size of global foreign investment flows next year will depend on economic conditions, Liu told a briefing of foreign reporters.
Fan Wenjie, an official with the commerce ministry, said China's FDI in 2016 could match that of last year.
FDI in China rose 3.9 percent to 731.8 billion yuan ($105.53 billion) in the first 11 months of this year from a year earlier, while non-financial outbound direct investment jumped 55.3 percent to 1.07 trillion yuan, ministry data showed.
China will continue to open up its economy, improve its investment environment, and ease restrictions on foreign investors, including foreign equity holdings, officials said.
China has not changed its policies to allow repatriation of profits by foreign firms, the officials said, echoing earlier comments by the foreign exchange regulator.
Tighter rules on outbound capital flows have raised barriers for European and U.S. companies to get money out of the country, with one saying dividend payments had been affected, business lobbies for U.S. and E.U. firms said last week.