China, building on its warm relations with Myanmar, has become the Southwest Asia country's largest foreign investor, a report said Monday.

The Myanmar-language Weekly Eleven says that China poured more than $3 billion into Myanmar from November last year through January this year.

The increased investment has brought China's cumulative investment in Myanmar since 1988 to $9.6 billion, as compared to Thailand's $9.56 billion, the Weekly Eleven said.

The news report, citing an unnamed official from the Union of Myanmar Chamber of Commerce and Industry, said China's major new investments were in hydropower, natural gas and infrastructure projects to lay a solid foundation for an economic take-off in one of the least developed ASEAN countries.

There have been no major new Western investments in recent years in Myanmar because of tough economic sanctions imposed by the United States, reports said.

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