Foreign direct investment (FDI) into the Chinese mainland rose eight percent year-on-year to 76.27 billion yuan (about 11 billion US dollars) in September, the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) said Thursday.

"There has been steady growth in real FDI into China. In the first nine months, FDI into new companies has grown quickly, up 95.1 percent year-on-year. The structure of FDI has improved, and more FDI went into the high tech manufacturing industry. More FDI went into the western region of China. Free trade zones also attracted more foreign investments. Investments from South Korea, Japan and UK saw fast growth," said Gao Feng, Spokesperson of MOFCOM.

FDI into China increased 2.9 percent in the first nine months of this year to 636.7 billion yuan (91.77 billion US dollars) from a year earlier, according to MOFCOM.

FDI into China from the US in January-September rose 6.7 percent from a year earlier.