Manganese ore mining has generated more returns on foreign investment than any other mainland industry, according to a survey.
The industry has yielded returns of more than 45 per cent, with refractory clay and stone mining and cigarette manufacturing, ranked second and third, providing overseas investors with returns of more than 20 per cent.
The findings are from a industrial survey - 'China's Industrial Markets Yearbook 1997' - published by City University of Hong Kong Press in co-operation with China's State Statistical Bureau.
Gao Yuxian, director of the China Statistic Information and Consultancy Centre, said the yearbook was compiled using data collected in the bureau's 1996 Industrial Census and from reports provided by more than 500,000 companies in 588 industrial sectors.
The yearbook makes use of SSB's data and information from China's various ministries.
The numbers were cross-checked at village, township, county and provincial levels, Mr Gao said. The publication should serve as a guidebook for foreign-invested enterprises scouring the mainland's restructuring state sector for investment opportunities, he said.