Almost two-thirds of China's largest manufacturers are foreign companies, first among them Motorola Inc., the world's second-biggest cell-phone maker and No. 6 among all industrial companies in the world's fourth-largest economy, a report said.

Motorola had 74 billion yuan ($9.28 billion) in sales in China in 2005, far more than the 49 billion yuan of rival handset maker Nokia Oyj, which was the second-largest foreign company in China in terms of sales and No. 12 overall, according to the report released today by China's National Bureau of Statistics.

``Foreign invested companies are important players in China's manufacturing sector,' the report, China's Top 500 Manufacturers in 2006, said. ``They help drive growth.'

General Motors Corp., the world's largest automaker, was ranked the third-largest foreign company and No. 14 overall with 45 billion yuan in sales, the report said.

GM sales in China last year far eclipsed those of rivals Volkswagen AG and Hyundai Motor Co., which each had about 25 billion yuan in sales and were ranked Nos. 46 and 47 respectively.

Baosteel Group Corp., China's biggest steelmaker, topped the list of 500 companies with 176 billion yuan in sales in 2005, according to the report.

``China's manufacturers have come a long way in their ability to compete with foreign rivals, but they will have to acquire more high technology in order to gain and retain a competitive edge,' Zhu Hongren, a deputy director of the National Development and Reform Commission, said at the briefing where the report was released.

The commission advises China's cabinet on economic policy.