A great number of overseas businessmen are still confident that China will remain one of the biggest investment markets in the world in the new century.

Herb Heryyuana Lin, manager of Intel Capital, who is attending the fourth China Fair for International Investment and Trade in the port city Xiamen, said that the decrease of overseas investment in China is a temporary phenomenon.

"China is absolutely going to be the most competitive investment market in developing countries in the next 10 years," Lin said.

Hong Jun Park, a representative from Hyundai of the Republic of Korea, who is also visiting the fair, scheduled to conclude today, held that "China will be an infinitely big market in the coming 10 to 20 years."

Nearly 10,000 overseas businessmen are at the fair, so far the only national event which aims to lure foreign funds into China. Contracts involving over US$10 billion have been signed -- a much higher figure than for any previous event.

Since it adopted the opening-up policy in 1978, China, with a population of over one billion, has been regarded as "a name which is most attractive to foreign investors."

China has been the biggest recipient of foreign direct investment in developing countries for seven straight years since 1993. Over 400 of the world's top 500 multinational corporations have invested in China.

Foreign investment in China has shown a declining trend since the mid-1990s for various reasons. However, the situation took a turn for the better since the beginning of the year.