Hong Kong leads the table of financial centres that have received the largest volumes of foreign direct investment (FDI) from mainland China in the five years between November 2011 and October 2016, according to estimates by greenfield investment monitor fDi Intelligence. Mainland China poured a total of $902m into what is often considered its main offshore centre.
London is a relatively distant second with $598.5m, followed by Singapore and, a further large step down, New York. The remaining positions of the top 15 table offer an interesting mix of Asian, Australian and European centres. In addition to the more established international hubs of Paris and Luxembourg, Budapest, Rome and Lisbon attracted strong levels of investment and occupy the last three places in the list.
The table’s total FDI volume from mainland China is $3.05bn, an impressive figure that highlights the country’s international expansion when it comes to financial services. However, its pulling power remains far greater, as this number is overshadowed by the investment into mainland China by financial centres elsewhere in the world, at an impressive $20bn.
Here London leads with $3.71bn, thanks to a large number of investments by HSBC and Standard Chartered and a series of projects by the city's insurance firms and specialist investment companies. Geographically, the table is mixed, with another North American centre appearing in 12th place, Boston, and a Middle Eastern one, Abu Dhabi, in 13th. However, no Latin American or African centres appear in either ranking.
