SHANGHAI, May 11 (Xinhuanet) -- The implementation of the non-
commercial risk guarantees can help foreign investors guard
against investment risk brought by non-commercial factors and make
them set their minds at rest in investing in developing countries,
Motomichi Ikawa, executive vice president of the Multilateral
Investment Guarantee Agency, said here Saturday.
   The non-commercial risk guarantee is an effective way in
investment risk control. It will help foreign investors yield
positive returns from the countries they have invested in, he said
at today's seminar on multilateral guarantees, which attracted
over 200 representatives of the Asian Development Bank (ADB) who
are participating in the 35th Annual Meeting of the Board of
Governors of the ADB being held here.
   Non-commercial risk refers to risks other than commercial
factors such as war, internal turbulence and governmental
interference and the losses brought about to investors in their 
investment.
   Statistics showed the amount of foreign investment flow to
developing countries increased by a big margin in the 1990s. By
2000, the foreign investment absorbed by the developing countries
topped 240 billion U.S. dollars.
   However, the flow of investment slowed down in the course of
sluggish global economic development in recent years.
   Foreign investment, he said, is important to developing
countries in their economic development. China's about eight-
percent economic growth was attributed to the large absorption of
foreign investment. It is necessary to enhance non-commercial risk
guarantees and divert foreign investment to these countries again.
   The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency has provided
guarantees for 560 foreign-funded projects in 80 countries over
the past 14 years, involving total direct investment of 42 billion
U.S. dollars.
   Ikawa said his agency will maintain its emphasis of work in
Africa, Asia and the Middle East.   Enditem