BEIJING: China will continue to encourage its eligible enterprises to go to Pakistan for business and investment aimed at conducting mutually beneficial cooperation, said Chinese Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Lu Kang on Wednesday.

China attaches great importance to China-Pakistan all weather strategic cooperative partnership and we are committed to conducting trade and investment cooperation with Pakistan, he said during his regular press briefing while commenting on a data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) regarding China's 1.186 billion dollar foreign direct investment in Pakistan during the financial year 2016-17.

The spokesperson said in recent years, China's Foreign Direct Investment in Pakistan has maintained a rapid growth and this has played an important role in bilateral cooperation between the two friendly countries.

He expressed the confidence that with advancement of the construction of China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and China's investment in Pakistan, "We will achieve a greater investment in future." The latest data showed that the foreign direct investment during fiscal year of 2016-2017 increased 5% from a year earlier, totaling 2.41 billion dollars.

China ranked the top with 1.186 billion dollars, followed by Netherlands with 463 million dollars, Turkey with 136 million dollars and France with 119 million dollars.