China urged its working teams to provide greater support for key foreign-funded projects so as to stabilize foreign investment across the country, said the Ministry of Commerce.

While strengthening regular communications with foreign companies and improving their service level, these teams are encouraged to promote the early construction of landmark foreign-funded projects in the manufacturing sector, the ministry said in an online statement after a video meeting held in Beijing last week.

During the meeting, Guo Tingting, assistant minister of commerce, said working teams should intensify their efforts to reach more investment deals in the next step.

These working teams have been established by the government to enhance the service guarantees for foreign-funded companies and key foreign-funded projects, giving full play to the role of foreign trade and foreign investment coordination mechanisms.

Despite the downward pressure on the Chinese economy amid the COVID-19 pandemic and global geopolitical tensions, foreign direct investment into the Chinese mainland expanded 16.4 percent on a yearly basis to 892.74 billion yuan ($124.72 billion) in the first eight months of 2022, statistics from the ministry showed.