The reporter learned from the Municipal Bureau of Commerce on July 10th that in the first half of this year, $235 million of foreign capital has been utilized in Yichang, a growth of 15.76% over the sum of $203 million of the same period last year, thus 54.6% of the annual target has been achieved. To be specific, Yidu ranks first in the whole city for a completion of $63.82 million dollars, followed by Yichang High-tech Zone for $60 million dollars and Zhijiang for $48.5 million dollars.

　　 According to the head in Municipal Bureau of Commerce, under the depression of the global economy, the accomplishment of the utilization of foreign capital on time benefits from the fact that the Municipal Bureau of Commerce has strengthened its performance of duties and responsibilities, vigorously guided enterprises within its jurisdiction to fully tap their potential, and stepped up the implementation of the foreign capital utilization policy. At the same time, the bureau has intensified the statistical training on foreign capital utilization and undertook the training program of the Provincial Commercial Department on the utilization of foreign capital statistics in Yichang so that all the statisticians from the city's business system have received such training.

　　 In the first half of this year, the utilization of foreign capital in Yichang presents a major feature: foreign investment has gradually transformed and upgraded from the original production-oriented enterprises to service-oriented ones. And so far, there are two enterprises in Yichang that have invested in urban commercial complex, with a total investment amounting to $112.5 million. (Reporter: Xing Jiewei; correspondent: Liu Yali)