Foreign direct investment (FDI) into China rose by 23.4 percent year on year in January to 10.03 billion U.S. dollars, said Yao Jian, spokesman of the Ministry of Commerce, Thursday.

A total of 2,243 new foreign-invested enterprises were approved in January, an increase of 20.2 percent year on year, Yao said.

The services sector received 4.69 billion U.S. dollars of FDI, up 31.8 percent from January last year. While FDI inflows in the manufacturing sector rose 18.9 percent to 4.7 billion U.S. dollars.

Yao said the growth of FDI into west China was higher than the national average. The western regions attracted 510 million U.S. dollars of FDI in January, a year-on-year increase of 81.1 percent.

Investment in the eastern region grew 23 percent year on year to 8.98 billion U.S. dollars, while investment in the central region fell 2 percent year on year to 540 million U.S. dollars.

The FDI into China increased 17.4 percent year on year to 105.74 billion U.S. dollars last year. In December alone, China attracted 14.03 billion U.S. dollars worth of FDI, up 15.6 percent year on year.

Outbound direct investment

In January, Chinese outbound direct investment rose 15.9 percent year on year to 2.736 billion U.S. dollars, bringing the total value of the country's outbound direct investment by the end of January to 261.5 billion U.S. dollars, Yao said.

A total of 1.886 billion U.S. dollars, or 70 percent of China's January outbound direct investment, went to Asian markets, he said.

Chinese outbound direct investment went mainly into the services, mining, wholesale and retail, manufacturing and transport sectors.

Service outsourcing

Last year, the total value of contracts in China's service outsourcing industry posted a 37-percent year-on-year increase to 27.4 billion U.S. dollars, Yao said.

The value of contracts in China's offshore service outsourcing rose 34.3 percent year on year to 19.83 billion U.S. dollars last year, he said.

At the end of last year, China had 12,706 firms in the service outsourcing industry, employing a total of 2.328 million people.

Fairness appeal in us security probe

Responding to a question about Chinese telecommunications maker Huawei Technologies Co., who bought a U.S.-based 3Leaf Systems last May and was told by a U.S. security review panel that it must sell 3Leaf or otherwise the committee would recommend U.S. President Obama cancel the deal, Yao said he hoped the U.S. would make its security review process for foreign investment more transparent and treat Chinese companies fairly.

"We hope U.S. security examination laws and regulations treat Chinese companies fairly, regardless of whether they are public traded, state-owned or private, and we hope transparent and predictable reviews can be carried out," said Yao.