Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland rose 4.2% year on year to reach 666.3 billion yuan (around 98 billion US dollars) in the first ten months of the year, official data showed Thursday.

    The growth rate is unchanged from the January-September period, according to the Ministry of Commerce. The service industry continued to attract massive foreign investment from January to October, (Xinhua) news agency quoted Tang Wenhong, head of the ministry's foreign investment division, as saying FDI in the service sector, which accounted for 70.7% of all investment, increased 9.1% year on year during the period. 

    In particular, FDI in high-tech services skyrocketed 90.2% from a year earlier to reach 79.18 billion yuan. In the first ten months, FDI from the United States surged 79.8%, while that from the European Union soared 41.5%. The number of newly-established foreign companies with investment of over 100 million dollars totaled 600. 

    FDI in China's western regions jumped 29.8% year on year to 49.27 billion yuan during the 10-month period, while the more developed eastern areas attracted 582.82 billion yuan in investment, up 6.9%.