Newly added investment from Germany in China grew by 62.7 percent year-on-year in the first seven months of this year as bilateral trade and investment continued growing, the Ministry of Commerce (MOC) said Thursday.

During the period, German investment reached 1.17 billion U.S. dollars and bilateral trade was up 2.4 percent to nearly 107 billion U.S. dollars, MOC spokesperson Gao Feng told a news conference.

China made 1.01 billion U.S. dollars of investment in Germany between January and July, a rise of 27.6 percent year-on-year.

China has been Germany's top trading partner for three consecutive years and one of the most favorite investment destinations for German firms, Gao said.

In 2018, bilateral trade grew 9.4 percent to a record new high of 183.9 billion U.S. dollars.

German firms have shown great enthusiasm for attending the second China International Import Expo and over 200 enterprises have signed up for the November event, Gao said, adding that the number of firms and their booth areas rank top among European countries.

Gao said German companies had also actively participated in the new round of China's opening-up, citing more investment in China from companies such as chemical giant BASF and automakers Volkswagen and BMW.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel will pay an official visit to China from Friday to Saturday. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and Merkel will attend a meeting of China-Germany Economic Advisory Committee.

"The Chinese side is willing to work with the German side to continue to build a platform for exchanges and cooperation between enterprises of the two countries, and promote the steady and sustained development of bilateral economic and trade cooperation," Gao said.