Foreign-funded firms in Shanghai slow as global recession intensifies

Special Report:Global Financial Crisis

SHANGHAI, Dec. 29 (Chinese media) -- Conditions of foreign-funded enterprises here have deteriorated in the past four months amid the global financial crisis, according to a municipal government report on Monday.

In the first 11 months of 2008, such enterprises had a 17.7 percent rise in operating income and a 9 percent rise in profits year-on-year, compared with 25.8 percent and 67.6 percent, respectively, last year.

Conditions changed in September as the global crisis intensified, said Liu Jinping, deputy director of the municipal leading office of overseas investment.

Foreign-funded enterprises have been an important part of the city's economy. They contributed 140.1 billion yuan (20.5 billion U.S. dollars) of tax revenue in 2007, about 19.2 percent of the total. They employed about 2.94 million people, accounting for 32 percent of all employees.

About 33,000 overseas-funded enterprises operate in Shanghai.