U.S. for the first time in more than a decade. Kwon Soa reports on how the country′s steady

growth was the main reason... along with the increasing flow of funds to developing countries.

China became the top destination for foreign direct investment last year,... according

to the latest report by the UN Conference on Trade and Development.

This is the first time it′s topped the United States since 2003.

Foreign businesses invested over 1-hundred-27 billion U.S. dollars into China last year,

a 3-billion-dollar rise from the previous year.

The U.S., on the other hand, saw investments plunge to 86 billion dollars... from over

2-hundred-30 in 2013. That put the U.S. in third behind China and

Hong Kong, followed by Singapore, Brazil and the UK.

The U.S. was the only developed country in the top five.

The UN conference′s director of investment and enterprise, James Zhan, says China′s

performance is attributed to its steady economic growth.

He added there have been changes in the investment areas from manufacturing toward the service

sector... and from labor-intensive fields to tech-intensive ones.

And investors are generally shifting away from developed economies to developing ones,

with foreign direct investment in developing economies having doubled since the 2008 global

financial crisis. Asia alone has accounted for 15 percent of

the inflow last year,... the highest amount ever.

Although Korea′s FDI inflow has been among the bottom 7 out of 8 Asian countries for

six years, Korea ranked fourth out of 177 countries for foreign direct investment potential...

in a separate UNCTAD report. Also, the FDI amount pledged to Korea last

year reached a record high of 19 billion U.S. dollars, due to recently signed free trade

agreements. Kwon Soa, Arirang News.